In a city littered with famous buildings it’s a delight to stumble upon a great one that isn’t well known. To wit: The Madonna Della Strada Chapel on the Loyola campus: a basket of inventions wrapped in a Prairie-Deco-Moderne mashup. Set at the edge of Lake Michigan, it demurely turns its back on the campus requiring a walk through an arcade to confront the horizon (pic 10), then a U- turn to enter its bold & strange facade. Its bell tower is like a model of a skyscraper 10x its height (pics 2&11). The most intriguing feature is a series of nested limestone arches (3&4) above the alter with slots of glass block that let light ooze into the sanctuary. Alas, the glass was covered due to waterproofing issues and replaced with LED strips (pics 5 shows the effect before the change, pic 6 is from 1944 with the raw concrete interior before they had funds to finish it out). 1938 Andrew Rebori, architect. #chicagoarchitecture #atlasobscura #churcharchitecture #midcenturymodern #artdeco #prairiestyle #andrewrebori #architecturelovers #designinspo

Sunrise over Lake Michigan The Chicago lakefront with man-made cliffs baffles the denizens of the Pacific coast. The last gasp of summer before winter begins its slow, inexorable onslaught…. #chicagourbanism #lakemichigan #chicagoarchitecture #designinspo

A friend recently reminded me of how amazing the Oakland Coliseum Arena is - even if it has been defaced by ham-fisted additions over the years. Designed by Myron Goldsmith, the clarity of the original concept - a freestanding undulating bowl set within a glass and concrete yurt topped by a suspension roof structure (reminiscent of its Roman namesake, pic-5) - seems exotic compared to today’s arenas. An uncompromising modernist conception that wears its historical references on its sleeve. 1966, @skidmoreowingsmerrill Pics 1&6 - Ezra Stoller @estophoto Pic 2 - William Reid . Pic 4 - Jean-Léon Gérôme’s 1859 painting “Ave Caesar!” #oaklandcalifornia #oaklandish #oaklandcoliseum #midcenturymodern #modernarchitecture #midcenturymodernarchitecture #concretedesign #structuralengineering #arena