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rbail5
Apr 21, 20232 min read

The Dana-Thomas House: An Architectural Modern Marvel

The Dana-Thomas House is a magnificent work of residential architecture that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright at the dawn of the 20th century and is located in the “Aristocracy Hill” neighborhood of Springfield, Illinois. Susan Lawrence Dana, who at the time lived in an Italianate mansion, commissioned Wright to remodel the home into what now stands as one of the largest and most intact of the Prairie School Houses designed by Wright. The first “blank check” commission by Wright, the 35-room home has three main levels but has a total of 16 varying levels. The home belonged to Susan Lawrence Dana for 25 years before being purchased by medical publisher Charles C. Thomas and his wife Nanette in 1944. The state of Illinois purchased the home and its original furnishings which had been maintained by the Thomas family in 1981.



Visitors to the home arrive at the south side entrance featuring an arched door and decorated stained glass dimly lit by soft light bulbs. From the ground level, guests have an immediate view of the reception hall. The upper level of the main reception hall featured a space for a speaker or musician to entertain guests of the home. The home has 12,000 square feet, which was more than enough space to host a large number of guests. The home also features 100 pieces of white oak furniture that was designed by Wright including an impressive dining room table with chairs alternating in height which made it not only stylish but a way to easily serve guests gathered around it.


The home features a wide porch designed as a covered space where guests could congregate on days when weather permitted. Even the hallways were built with acoustics in mind so visitors could hear musicians play from nearly any place within the home.


The Dana-Thomas House features a beautiful library on its ground floor that was open to the public when it was owned by Susan Lawrence Dana. Local children would visit the home to enjoy the library and have ice cream, while adults would unwind by playing billiards and bowling at the home's lower level.


Those wanting to schedule a tour of the home can book a time at www.Dana-Thomas.org Sources: The Dana-Thomas House Group Illinois Adventure #1505 WTVP (Video)

egrim8
Apr 20, 20223 min read

Big Marsh Park: A Change for the Better


(Lake Calumet and the surrounding wetlands from the late 1800s to now, provided by the Chicago Historical Archives and the Big Marsh Organization)


History

Big Marsh Park, located in Chicago, Illinois, has been undergoing a massive transition throughout the past decade. Highlighted in AIA’s Blueprint for Better campaign, Big Marsh Park is one of Chicago’s largest environmental reclamation projects. The park consists of approximately 300 acres of natural wetlands off the banks of Lake Calumet. In the past, the region was home to several Native American tribes, including the Illini, the Potawatomi, and the Algonquin Nation. Throughout the 1800s, several industrial towns emerged along Lake Calumet. For decades these industrial manufacturers would dump their waste into the lake’s drainage basin. Along with the industrial waste, several landfill sites were constructed within close proximity to the lake. In the 1900s, Lake Calumet became home to the Port of Chicago and has been managed by the Illinois International Port District since.


Over the years, the lake and wetlands ecosystem began to disappear due to increasing human pollution. In the 50s, the communities surrounding the lake began advocating for more environmental regulations. Organizations such as the “People for Community Recovery” and the “Southeast Environmental Task Force” are primarily responsible for ending the use of landfills within Chicago’s city limits, which went into effect in 1986. While this helped reduce some of the pollutants, there were still several operating factories, which were negatively affecting the ecosystem.


Clean-up

Since the early 2000s, the Chicago Parks District has been acquiring the lands surrounding Lake Calumet such as Indian Ridge Marsh, Hegewisch Marsh, Steelworkers Park, and Marion Byrnes woods. In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) included the Lake Calumet region in their “superfund list” after conducting a variety of environmental tests. This list consists of sites across the U.S. that have been affected by environmental pollution. These areas are often extremely hazardous and are restricted to the public. However, news of Lake Calumet and the surrounding regions containing hazardous elements brought much-needed attention and funding to the area.

(Ford Calumet Environmental Center, captured by CCC Holdings, Inc)


Today

Matthew Freer, who works for the Chicago Park Districts as the assistant director of Landscape, Cultural, and Natural Resources, mentions that the City of Chicago's objective was to transform Big Marsh Park into a thriving public park. The goal for the Chicago Parks District was to create an environment in which industry, nature, and culture all coexist. As clean-up efforts began, the ecology slowly returned to the landscape, and so has the wildlife. In 2016, Big Marsh Park was opened to the public for recreational use. The first phase of construction for the park consisted of a 45-acre bike park, with tracks, jumps, and paved trails. Another region of Big Marsh Park has been designated as an “Important Bird Area of Illinois”, and has paths built specifically for bird-watching. The most recent addition to Big Marsh Park is the new visitor's center. The Ford Calumet Environmental Center (FCEC), designed by architect Jeanne Gang, is the product of the joint venture between the Ford Foundation and the Chicago Parks District. The center was constructed at the entrance of the park and opened in the Spring of 2020. Inside, guests can learn about the History of Big Marsh Park, as well as information regarding the plants, animals, and habitats that make up the region's ecosystem.

(Big Marsh Park in 2016, provided by the Big Marsh Park Organization)


Sources

egrim8
Mar 17, 20223 min read

Architectural Marvel: MSG Sphere Destined for Las Vegas


(Photo renderings of the MSG Sphere were released by Madison Square Garden)


Announcement of the MSG Sphere

Coming to the Las Vegas skyline in 2023 is the MSG Sphere. The joint-venture project between Madison Square Garden (MSG), Las Vegas Sands Corporation, The Venetian Las Vegas, and Tao Group Hospitality, was announced to the public in February of 2018. When completed, it will be the world’s largest spherical building, standing 112 meters tall and 157 meters wide. The MSG Sphere will act as an entertainment venue and will contain the world’s largest and highest resolution LED screen. The screen will cover an area larger than three football fields (15,000 square-meters), and will have a resolution of 19,000 by 13,500 pixels, which is a hundred times better than today’s high-definition televisions. The venue will be equipped with 17,500 seats, but will have a standing capacity of up to 20,000 people. The building will consist of nine different levels, with one level specifically being used to house revolutionary audio equipment capable of radiating bass through the floors. This will allow the MSG Sphere to provide full 4D effects to every person in attendance. Once the exterior of the dome is completed, the sphere will then be covered in 54,000 square-meters of programmable LED lighting.


In total, the MSG Sphere entertainment complex will have over 81,300 square-meters (875,000 square-feet) of interior space. Early estimates on the cost of the project were around $1.2 billion US dollars, however that number has been increasing and is now projected to be approximately $1.85 billion US dollars.


Construction of the MSG Sphere

AECOM, an American international engineering firm, and Populous, a global architecture firm, were the firms contracted to design and construct the dome. Work first began in March of 2019 and required the excavation of roughly 84,000 cubic-meters of material. Over the course of the construction, more than 1,000 construction workers have been employed to meet the labor demands.


Building the spherical structure was anything but simple. The dome’s roof alone consists of six million pounds of steel. In order to construct the foundation, four concrete cores were built, which were then tied together with over 9,500 tons of steel. This creates a series of tensioned ring beams that will help hold the weight of the 11,000 ton roof. When it came to constructing the roof of the dome, an 86-meter temporary shoring tower was built in the center of the sphere. After the shoring tower was assembled, the next step was placing the 154 ton compression ring atop the tower, as well as the thirty-two steel trusses that connect to it. Due to the immense size and weight of the compression ring and trusses, the world’s fourth largest crawler crane had to be imported from Belgium in order to hoist them into place. When the crane arrived on site it took eighteen days to assemble and stood 176 meters tall when fully constructed.


After the roof’s steel frame was in place, over 6,000 cubic yards of concrete were pumped onto the roof, forming a layer of concrete ten inches thick, weighing approximately 10,000 tons. In October of 2021, the roof of the MSG Sphere was finally finished. Work on the interior of the dome began in August of 2021, and is expected to continue until late 2022 or early 2023.

(Construction photos were captured by Chase Stevens from the Las Vegas Review-Journal)


Upon Completion

The MSG Sphere is set to be a global spectacle after its completed. The entertainment complex will be located off of the Las Vegas Strip, and is near resorts such as the Wynn, The Venetian, and The Palazzo. MSG Sphere is expected to create over 4,400 jobs, and will host events such as award shows, concerts, boxing/mixed-martial arts matches, 4D experiences, and more.


The venue was initially scheduled to open in 2021, however, the Covid-19 Pandemic has caused several setbacks for the construction teams. It’s possible that these delays could push the grand opening for MSG Sphere back from late 2023 to early 2024. Along with being an architectural marvel, the MSG Sphere will utilize today’s most advanced technology to provide guests with an experience unknown to mankind up until this point. There has also been talks about building an identical MSG Sphere in East London.

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