Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.
Zach Mortice
@zachmortice.bsky.social
Chicago design journalist and critic, @bloomberg.com and elsewhere. In one of those phases where I can’t decide whether it matters what buildings look like or not. https://zachmortice.com
retvrn
Lynn Becker@cmgiulini.bsky.social · 2d agoRather astonishing to see such long-form journalism from a TV station, but CBS Chicago's Adam Harrington has a remarkable history of the rise and fall of Clybourn as a retail corridor, and of a 1915 factory's short life as the 1800 Clybourn mall. bit.ly/4hdfzCJ
“But to believe that what the Obama Presidential Center intended to be is the opposite of what Trump represents, is a shortsighted binary, as this campus will outlast the current political moment. It’s difficult to pin down how the architecture, art, and exhibits intend to address this, if at all.”
Zach Mortice @zachmortice.bsky.social · 2d agoI’m writing for print about this and didn’t want my take blurred by other critics’ howls, so I’m just now catching up on the commentariot parade. But lemme say you really can’t beat having a Southsider like @blaservations.bsky.social write about the South Side mascontext.com/observations...
I’m writing for print about this and didn’t want my take blurred by other critics’ howls, so I’m just now catching up on the commentariot parade. But lemme say you really can’t beat having a Southsider like @blaservations.bsky.social write about the South Side mascontext.com/observations...
At the New Obama Presidential Center, a Proposed Utopia of Hope and…
As the much anticipated—and controversial—Obama Presidential Center opens in Chicago’s Jackson Park, Elizabeth Blasius casts a critical eye on its…
mascontext.com
There are many scourges of modernity but the unstaffed gym is the worst
I miss the DC metro everyday
Theodore Grunewald@tedgrunewald.bsky.social · 2w agoAlong with architect Harry Weese & Associates's coffered concrete barrel vaults, indirect lighting, & hexagonal quarry tile floors—the round glass-block platform lights together form one of the 20th century's best spaces. 25 Year Award via @zachmortice.bsky.social web.archive.org/web/20150419...
Very excited to get to teach Anthony Lumsden in a SoCal Modernism course this summer
Ok so here is Henri Lefebvre in The Right to the City tracing 60+ years of urban displacement, gentrification, surveillance, and consumption in one paragraph
Imagine assassinating people for the maintenance of the worldwide neoliberal order and then getting snatched up by some yee-haw golden spray paint right-wing populist whose base are all jet ski dealership owners
If you were lucky enough to finish most of your cognitive development before widespread GPS adoption ? Try to use a paper map now as often as you can so that you keep that ability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation
nature.com
Linda Holmes@lindaholmes.bsky.social · 4w agoThe thing is yes, paper maps, but also: You naturally learned how to get around more than people do now. I knew my way around my early neighborhoods where I drove a lot better than I have in the ones where I had GPS all the time.
Man did I pick the perfect historical era to watch Battlestar Galactica for the first time
The National Capital Planning Commission came up with a mind-boggling solution to fit Trump's arch under the Height of Buildings Act: Shrink the arch down to 130-ish feet, then blow up the golden statue to get to 250 feet. This would make the arch 40% statue: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Trump’s Arch Proposal Advances, Despite Law Limiting Building Height
A federal commission found a potential loophole that could allow the proposed 250-foot-tall arch in Washington to comply with federal law.
bloomberg.com
I keep thinking about this Alex Ross painting of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that is, for some reason, also the cast of 30 Rock
Hey fellow design writers, do you ever feel like you're subconsciously reverse-engineering a very ineffectual career in politics?
For more on Louis Sullivan's architecture, our artist page is up here (until someone throws it in a lake) smarthistory.org/artist/louis...
smarthistory.org
Zach Mortice @zachmortice.bsky.social · 4w agoIn no other place on earth would you run into world-historical architectural artifacts tossed into the water as rip-rap flooding buffers, and this speaks to both Chicago's embarrassment of riches and tragically late blooming preservation movement blockclubchicago.org/2026/07/08/a...
In no other place on earth would you run into world-historical architectural artifacts tossed into the water as rip-rap flooding buffers, and this speaks to both Chicago's embarrassment of riches and tragically late blooming preservation movement blockclubchicago.org/2026/07/08/a...
Artifacts Of Louis Sullivan Building, Demolished In The '50s, Are Protecting South Shore's Lakefront
Blocks of carved stone from the Walker Warehouse — an early example of Sullivan's lauded ornamentation — have served alongside other rubble for decades as a lakefront revetment near Rainbow Beach.
blockclubchicago.org
The “Tea Party of the Left” tagline applied to all the victorious Zohran-backed progressive challengers is pretty stupid b/c they ran on policies ppl actually like (healthcare, public infrastructure) and the actual Tea Party wanted seniors to wrestle starving pythons for Medicare benefits.
genuinely crazy to watch these people freak out over what is essentially 21st century new dealism
Mediaite@mediaite.com · last mo.‘I’m Done, I’m Not in That F*cking Political Party’: James Carville Freaks Out After Progressives Win Big in Democratic Primaries
Humbly submitted: The weirdest thing I’ve ever written is maybe a the best????? www.wrong-house.com/p/hanging-ou...
Hanging Out in the Graham Foundation Bathroom
Come find me. There is a bathtub here.
wrong-house.com
I’m holding back my Obama Presidential Center takes till I file my piece, but I will say it’s rare for a building to dare critics to make the building a metaphor for a historic figure so flagrantly while that figure and their entire political apparatus are so throughly despised
almost like secret societies are brokerages for prestige
WIRED@wired.com · 2mo agoICYMI: After a list was leaked of elite members of Dialog, an invite-only secret club linked to Peter Thiel, WIRED has learned the organization secretly ranks its event attendees on a hidden scale.
”Juneteenth Has Always Been About Black Liberation” by Kaitlyn Greenidge for Harper’s Bazaar. An oral history, as told by members of the Winston-Salem Chapter of The Black Panther Party. www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/feat...
Juneteenth Has Always Been About Black Liberation
Power to the People, Y’all, a documentary about the Black Panther Party in North Carolina, explores what that means in practice
harpersbazaar.com
Required reading 🫵🏻
Max Chavez@maxchavez.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo excited to announce the release of my book ART DECO WORLD! A global survey of the beloved style’s past 100 years from inception to rebirth (to rebirth again!), it will be released September 1. U.S. and int’l readers can register for a pre-order link here: www.routledge.com/Art-Deco-Wor...
McSweeney’s on the economics of the AI bubble. This description of AI driven layoffs is excellent satire.
Complaining about the arch / complaining about AI in schools this afternoon seems like two sides of the same coin. i.e. There are no shortcuts in art and don't let powerful people tell you that there are.
it's crazy how being a weird chicago guy (non-pervert) is the meta for success and heaven