Sylvan fanfares, if you please. Ravinia Park has stayed in key while undergoing a $15 million design upgrading.
Architect Joseph Gonzalez of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill masterminded the changes. They appear to fit in comfortably with Ravinia’s woodsy ambiance and will get their crowd test at this weekend’s opening concerts of the summer festival on the North Shore.
Improved acoustics inside and outside the pavilion are a major aspect of the makeover. The pavilion has a new fiberglass stage shell and sound clouds. Some of the other, more subtle physical changes are aimed at making the park even more presentable and, it is hoped, more convenient to use.
It’s a comforting ritual at Ravinia to stroll through the entry gate, a rustic charmer, and that has not changed. But now Gonzalez has flanked it with two ticketing and service pavilions. They make for a bigger and more formal entry presence, somewhat businesslike but still parklike and friendly.
Behind that area he has provided a plaza or mixing space, simple and paved in everyday asphalt. The goal is to help nudge more people along a winding pathway to the north lawn, thereby easing crowd noise and congestion. The best-laid plans of architects, to be sure, are oft gone with the wind (and the woodwinds, at Ravinia). But this is a step, or steps, in the right direction.
Gonzalez also has banished a food service gazebo on the south lawn facing the pavilion, and has replaced it with a new one removed to the north lawn.
That has opened a clear view into the pavilion stage, a big gain. The pavilion also has benefited from the reconfiguring of seats and the removal of three rows of concrete risers at the rear.
Add refinished seating, plantings, new walkways and more inviting colors, among other changes, and it all says “welcome.” Ravinia remains a charmed place, a vintage pleasure ground.
– “While hiding behind a bow tie, Jack Hartray has dedicated himself to producing attractive, well-made architecture.”
He hasn’t been hiding, but otherwise there’s no quarreling with that invitation to the True Patriots Dinner June 29 in the Newberry Library. The dinner is sponsored by the Coalition for New Priorities, a grouping of community, labor, religious and civic organizations based at 220 S. State St. (phone: 312-362-0500).
Hartray and community activist Juditth Walker are being honored at the dinner. She is a former human services commissioner for the city.
More formally known as John F. Hartray Jr., the architect is a partner in the firm of Nagle, Hartray and Associates. He is an eloquent partisan of socially responsible housing and design, professional concerns–and the good life, generally. He is also the emcee type and is expert at roasting himself, tongue in cheek.
“Usually when you get these awards in Chicago,” he says solemnly, “it’s followed in a week by your being indicted. I’ve been searching my career to see what I’ve done.”
You’ve done all right, Jack.
– The Illinois State Historical Society has placed a marker at 623 S. Wabash Ave. to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Brunswick Corp. That historic Chicago firm now is headquartered in Lake Forest, but made its home at 623 S. Wabash from 1931 to 1964.
The building itself has a lot of architectural history, too. It is 100 years old and is a fixture of Columbia College’s city-gritty campus. Originally it was the second Studebaker Building, a pioneering metal-frame design with big sheets of glass–a dazzler for its time, or really for any time.
Some years ago, unfortunately, remodelers flattened and bricked up its spiky roofline. That was followed by cluttering of the lower facade. When Columbia College acquired the building, it decided that an exterior restoration would be too costly, but the heart of the building is still there.
