See it
The Smart Home is ready for visitors at the Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive, in all its sustainable and technological glory. See the green roofs (all three)! See the recycled wood staircase and the bathroom tiles made from Chardonnay bottles! Tour the organic potager, with its compost-enriched lettuces and sweet alyssum and its rainwater-collecting cistern! Gawk at the combined garage and movie theater! Marvel at the elegant furniture designed from recycled materials and the whiz-bang home-automation technology that controls skylights, sound system and LED lighting! There’s a point to it all: The fully-functioning 2,500-square-foot house, built in modules, was designed by architect Michelle Kaufmann Designs to be as environmentally friendly as possible, with reclaimed or sustainable materials, a design that encourages energy conservation through natural ventilation and lighting, ample outdoor living space and careful control of all power-using devices. It’s co-sponsored by Wired Magazine with an outdoor landscape by Jacobs/Ryan Associates tucked between century-old oaks. Go on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 9: 30 to 3 p.m. and University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener volunteers will explain composting and organic gardening techniques. Through Jan. 4.
Cost: $10 (must buy timed tickets) in addition to $13 museum admission ($9 for children); 773-684-1414 or msichicago.org.
— Beth Botts
Attend it
Thinking of building or remodeling a home to be greener than the norm? Both professionals and homeowners can learn from “Living the Green Life: A Half-Day Symposium on Green Homes” from 1 to 4 p.m. May 27 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe. Architect Nathan Kipnis will talk about new tools, supplies and ideas in environmentally friendly home architecture; Cappy Kidd of Informed Energy Designs will speak on retrofitting existing homes; and Grace Rappe of Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects will explain green roofs. 1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe.
Cost: $87. To register, call 847-835-8261 or see chicagobotanic.org/symposia.
— B.B.
Attend it
Flowers, plant life and landscapes are the concepts explored by the Flower, Nature and Landscape Show, Thursday through June 28 in the landmark Sears, Roebuck and Company building. See calla lilies and other flora and fauna portrayed in paintings, sculpture, and black-and-white Georgia O’Keeffe-esque photography. More than 100 artworks from 10 artists will be available for purchase.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment [Mondays through Wednesdays]; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Thursdays through Saturdays]; 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. [Saturday evening reception]. 3333 W. Arthington St., 3rd Floor. For more information, call 773-324-5781 or visit murphyhillgallery.com.
— Shaila Wunderlich
Attend it
The Arts and Crafts Chicago Show and Sale hits on all sorts of A&C angles. Collectors and renovators alike will find Mission-inspired art glass, reproduction Craftsman lighting, antique Arts and Crafts furnishings, period-appropriate fabric and more from nearly 50 of the country’s finest Arts and Crafts vendors. Today is the final day of the two-day show. Two workshops, one on historic bungalow stenciling and a second on Craftsman color, will be available for an extra fee on a first-come, first-served basis.
Show admission: $7. Workshop admission: $55 (“Stenciling Your Bungalow”); $75 (“Light and Color”). Show hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Workshop hours: 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Geiseman Gym, Concordia University, 7400 Augusta St., River Forest. artsandcraftschicago.com
— S.W.
Shop it
Fans of the annual Chicago Antique Market will notice something different this year. The indoor-outdoor market has a new name, the Randolph Street Market Festival. Instead of running one day a month, it will run two. And adding to its usual line up of antiques, jewelry, fashion and art (200 vendors total) will be several “mini markets” featuring fresh flowers, a vinyl-album swap meet, and a global bazaar led by ethnic artisans and shops from around the city. Kick-off is this weekend [Saturday and May 25], followed by five additional weekends [June 28 and 29; July 26 and 27; Aug. 30 and 31; Sept. 27 and 28; and Oct.25 and 26].
Cost: $10 at show; $8 in advance online. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Saturdays outdoors); 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Saturdays indoors); 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Sundays indoors and outdoors). 1350 W. Randolph St. For more information, call 312-666-1200 or visit randolphstreetmarket.com.
— S.W.
See it
The lawn is “the default landscape. It’s what came with the house,” says Jill Ridell of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park. America is a “Lawn Nation,” and that’s the topic of an exhibit at the museum this summer. Artists, photographers, scientists and landscape architects have been asked to “riff on the theme of lawns,” Ridell says — not just the high cost of lawns in water, fertilizer, labor, toxic herbicides and insecticides, and water pollution, but the positive role they play in American life. After all, “you can’t play croquet in a prairie,” Ridell says. The exhibit includes artwork, videos, features such as a 3-D perspective of a bug in the grass, children’s activities, safe lawn care tips, a garden gnome hunt and a living outdoor installation in which landscape architects offer both subtle and radical alternatives to the classic Kentucky bluegrass lawn. Ridell says the lawn is interesting as “a transition space — between indoors and outdoors, between culture and nature.” Check out this exhibit to imagine what your lawn might transition into.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays May 23-Sept. 7, 2430 N. Cannon Drive. Call 773-755-5100 or see naturemuseum.org/index.php?id=159.
— B.B.
Shop it
It’s one of the two times each year the general public gets access to The Merchandise Mart’s storehouse of goods and design professionals. This weekend’s [Saturday and May 18] Treasure Hunt Luxury Sample Sale features furnishings, rugs, fabrics, lighting and accessories from more than 35 of The Merchandise Mart’s design showrooms on sale for as much as 75 percent off their regular price. A chair and ottoman from Betty M Collection, normally priced at $7,295, will be on sale for $3,500. A Filsinger Radcliffe Dining Table will be marked down from $10,053 to $3,300. Several interior designers also will be available for free consultations on a first-come, first-served sign-up basis.
Cost: $10 for weekend admission. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday [May 17], 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. [May 18]. The Merchandise Mart, 7th Floor, Kinzie and Wells Streets, 312-527-4141, merchandisemartdesigncenter.com.
— S.W.
Buy it
“There’s an overall sense of simplicity about the design,” says Connecticut-based quilt designer Denyse Schmidt about her latest creation, dubbed Simple Stripe. But “it’s about getting closer, and [then] you discern the layers of color and detail … deeper and deeper levels of detail but within this structure that’s very simple. … I felt that about the house.”
The house is The Glass House, the late architect Philip Johnson’s renowned rectangle of glass, which he designed for himself in 1949 as a weekend home on 47 acres (many of them wooded) in New Canaan, Conn., and would later become a Modernist icon — not to mention Johnson’s primary residence where he lived without draperies, save for the occasional thin white curtain to block the sun.
Schmidt was invited to visit the house earlier this year at the behest of the Philip Johnson Glass House Commissions program and design a quilt inspired by her experience there.
Launched in 2007, the program invites a select group of artists, architects and designers to develop limited-edition works whose purchase helps support the operation of the Glass House. Johnson left the house (which was the site of his death in 2005, at the age of 98) to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Trust opened the house to the public last year.
At first blush, Schmidt’s quilt looks like a simple brown band set on an off-white background. But like the Glass House itself, closer inspection reveals something more complex. The background is actually a shot cotton in which the warp is white and the weft is ecru, creating a subtle color shift “that, to me, was playing off this notion of the house being made of glass,” Schmidt says. “It’s all about reflection and shifting perspectives.”
And that simple brown band, meant to reference the house’s steel frame, is actually a melange of moss green, brown and gray fabrics, some of them vintage.
Cost: $1,500 for the limited-edition, queen-size quilt. For more information, visit philipjohnsonglasshouse.org. To purchase, call The Glass House Visitor Center in downtown New Canaan at 203-594-9884.
In other news from Schmidt: She has designed her first collection of home decor-weight fabric (for curtains, pillows, upholstery, etc.). Called Country Fair, the collection is made of cotton canvas and includes nine patterns in three color combinations. Among the highlights: Patchwork Promenade, a “cheater” fabric that is printed to look like it’s been pieced together in square blocks.
Price of the fabrics is approximately $18 a yard. For a list of stores, visit freespiritfabric.com/core-pages/findstore.php.
— Karen Klages
Dump it
Some homeowners in Lakeview and other areas of the North Side may have found blue recycling carts in their alleys this week, joining the seven wards that have had them for a year. It’s the start of Chicago’s slow conversion to suburban-style recycling citywide, after abandoning its ineffective blue bag program. The whole city won’t have those blue carts until 2011, the city says, but if you’ve got one, here’s what to put in it: All recyclables, including glass, paper, aluminum cans, aluminum foil and recyclable plastic, but not yard waste. (That’s a change from the blue bags, says city spokesman Wick Swanton.) Instead, place sticks, leaves and other plant debris in bags (preferably biodegradable, brown-paper yard-waste bags) beside the garbage and recycling carts. What about those who don’t yet have carts? They will have to take their recyclables to one of 16 drop-off centers. Find those locations, as well as information about what materials are acceptable in carts and drop-off centers, at bluecartschicago.com. The city is promising to open more centers this spring.
— B.B.
