Advices about Chicago

The first and more important advice about Chicago: Bring very good and comfortable shoes. And more if you to be Gwen's student. Chicago in Summer is great. The streets are very crowded with tourists, musicians and performers. That was surprise for me. I had other idea about Chicago. The wind city, have a cold and individualist image in foreign. The last and no less important to know about Chicago: Have a very good architecture and is one more beautiful modern Urbanism in the world.

About Frank Lloyd Wright and Park

It is very difficult for people to recognize the values of originals when they begin, because today they are in common.  Frank Lloyd Wright's work is that. His architecture today is the common  sense, but he, together with avant garde architects of the Modern Movement, invented the contemporany life. Oark Park is the transition between the traditional, the classical, the historical buildings and reactionary society for the progressive and flexible life. The modern art is this and the Laura Gale House, for example, represents this ideal.

My first weekend in Chicago

Well, Thursday after class, I took the El, on the Brown Line, just to last station in the north. I saw very beautiful roofs and woody neighborhoods. I came back  down town without sign out the train and I went to eat hot dog and Italian sandwich in the Portillos Restaurant on State street. But this was very peppery...
Friday I did one tour with Chicago Architecture Foundation in Oark ParK to see Frank Lloyd Wright's houses. I visited his home and studio, and four  more houses he designed. That was exciting... In the afternoon I went walk to Gold Coast, for see Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings also, when he worked with Louis Sullivan, his master in the early works. I saw too the Hugh Hefner house also....In the sunset evening I rode up in the Hangcok Observatory and I did one sketch of the view.  Finally I visited the Lake Shore Drive buildings, designed by Mies van der Rhoe, the German architect. Very, very beautiful buildings by night. I walked for house very tired.
Saturday I did one tour with CAF also named "Sullivan: Lost and found" for visit Louis Sullivan's buildings and fragments  at his demolished buildings. Very intersting. After I went to Fashion Out-Let for buy cheap clothes and lunch. By night I went dinner in Rush street corner State St., the Viagra Block...
Sunday, more one time I did one tour with CAF just to Farnsthworth House designate by Mies van der Rhoe for his lovers, M. Farnsworth. The house, for weekends and summers days is one the wonders for architecture world. I cried when arrived there...
In the afternoon I met my friend Cristiano and his family, Adriana, Luiza and Lucas. They have lived here for fourteen years and we went dinner in the wicker square. That was a good weekend!

My first time in Chicago

This is my fourth time traveling to the USA. The first was to NYC, the second to Buffalo ( when I lived in Montreal for specialization studies) and then to Orlando with my son. In NYC, I started my work for the Guggenheim Museum, the very beautiful building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In Buffalo I went to Niagara Falls and in Orlando i went to Epcot Center.
In Chicago I began my trip with Genzken's exhibit. This was one strong experience. Unforgettable.... I don`t like contemporary art because I don`t like the relativism, where all is good and all is possible. I love the freedom, and the plurality, but  humanity need archetypes for civilization and relationship. This, for me, is the same as the art, like music and painting, sculpture, movies and architecture. Common sense is very important. Imagine  if each person tried to make a revolution. If each architect tried one understanding building and each artist tried only his vision? That would be crazy.  I like Isa Genzken's research about the concrete spaces, but it`s very specific context.