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Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago
I'm not so sure this is true. . . with a few exceptions, Chicago hasn't built anything architecturally significant* here since the late 1980s. . .
I think what you're looking at is a legacy of Chicago architecture that existed in the 1900s but has long since been watered down and value engineered to oblivion. . .
I can't think of any project or firm that has really done exciting work here recently. . . Gang, Jahn, BKL, Hovey notwithstanding. . .
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Maybe the best pizza in the country is in some amazing spot in Phoenix. That doesn't mean that Phoenix is a good *pizza town*. The quality of a city's pizza is determined by the quality of the median slice and the population's standards. A crummy pizza joint should struggle to stay in business in a good pizza town.
That's what architecture is like. A place with high standards, not Dubai or Shanghai where weird or enviable stuff is happening at the margins.
-Chicago is home of the skyscraper and prairie style. Rome may not have gladiator events any longer, but the colosseum is still important. Every architect wants to have a building in Chicago. This isn't true of Miami or Seattle.
-Chicago has architectural cruises and more notable elements than you can count, the Michigan Avenue streetwall, multiple view decks with lines out the door.
-Chicago is the only major U.S. city that was designed.
-The average building quality is quite high. It's certainly more interesting to look at the average building in Chicago than it is in most cities that were built after 1850, and certainly in North America.