CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A new exhibit at the Chicago Architectural Center pays tribute to modernist Helmut Jahn, the German-born creator of the James R. Thompson Center and Terminal 1, including its popular neon-lit walkway, at O'Hare International Airport.
“HELMUT JAHN: LIFE + ARCHITECTURE,” running through October, is a retrospective organized in the wake of Jahn’s death in a bicycle accident in May.
According to the Chicago Architecture Center, the exhibit presents important designs by the powerhouse architect, ranging from signature early projects like the crystalline Michigan City Public Library (1977) and Chicago’s dazzlingly provocative James R. Thompson Center (1985) to the transformational urban marketplace Sony Center in Berlin (2000) and the forward-looking Pritzker Military Archives Center, currently under construction in Somers, Wisconsin.
“HELMUT JAHN: LIFE + ARCHITECTURE” showcases 17 scale models of some of Jahn’s most recognizable works in Chicago and around the world, said the CAC’s content manager, Ian Speela. It also will include photography and sketches illuminating each project and exploring the collaborative design and engineering process, while personal imagery, video, and recollections by those who knew and worked with Jahn underscore his flair for the dramatic and zest for life. Jahn’s career spanned more than 50 years.
“This is his adopted hometown. He was such an influential modernist, and then he dabbled in postmodernism, and then he made his own sort of technologically savvy innovations that carry us into the present day,” Speela said.
Jahn is identified with the Thompson Center, named after former Governor James R. Thompson, a polarizing structure that has not been maintained by Illinois state government. The Pritzker Administration is trying to unload the property to raise money, while the CAC has sponsored a competition seeking potential reuses of the glass-enclosed complex.
“We better save the Thompson Center, which is not only one of his greatest designs, but one of the few true celebrations of government as a public good,” Aaron Betsky, director of the School of Architecture + Design at Virginia Tech, said in a news release promoting the Jahn retrospective.
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