Chicago is synonymous with modern architecture—the birthplace of the skyscraper, the cradle of twentieth-century American design, and the home of enduring works by such iconic figures as
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. However, in Chicago Architecture, Charles Waldheim and Katerina Rüedi Ray revise and offer alternatives to the archetypal story of
modern architecture in Chicago.
An esteemed group of contributors here show that the mythic status of Chicago architecture has distorted our understanding of the historical circumstances in which it was realized. This
volume of fascinating essays illuminates the importance of photographs, books, magazines, and other media in the cultivation of an international audience for Chicago architecture; it
explores the pivotal role of real estate developers, finance and insurance sectors, and speculative capital markets in the development of the city itself; and, perhaps most notably, it
examines a wide variety of overlooked architectural works, including Marina City and O’Hare Airport, and their creators—lesser known women architects and individuals who did not fit into
the dominant modernist narrative. Chicago Architecture is a work of enormous scope and vision—a book as heady and towering as the skyline it considers.
