CHICAGO AIA AWARDS 2009 A utility plant stands in glass at the edge of the University of Chicago campus, revealing an orderly tangle of technical systems inside the rounded crystalline form. The South Campus Chiller Plant by Murphy/ Jahn was recognized by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects in its 2009 design awards. The AIA Chicago honorees range from a tiny cupcake shop in Chicago to a weathered-steel house in Arizona and a glassy office tower in Germany. — Published 2009.1118
	BARNES GOLD MEDAL Only five times in the 100-year history of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Gold Medal has the AIA's highest honor been awarded posthumously. Renowned 20th-century architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, FAIA has now joined the ranks of the others — Thomas Jefferson, Eero Saarinen, Richard Neutra, William Caudill, and Samuel Mockbee — who did not live long enough to enjoy this well deserved symbol of professional recognition. — Published 2007.0117
	HUGH STUBBINS, MODERN TOWER On New York City's Lexington Avenue at 53rd Street, Citicorp Center (built 1976 to 1978) reaches into the sky like a giant sheathed in aluminum and glass. Its designer, architect Hugh Stubbins, Jr., who challenged modern skyscraper orthodoxy of the time, died July 5, 2006 at the age of 94. — Published 2006.0809
	VIRTUAL WEISSENHOFSIEDLUNG In the 1920s, 17 European practitioners of the emerging modern architecture were invited to contribute designs to a collection of houses that came to be known as Weissenhofsiedlung. The future luminaries included, among others, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius. — Published 2002.0911
	ISRAEL'S ARCHITECTURE OF HOPE It was born in Germany. It flourished in Tel Aviv. The Bauhaus modernist movement saw light with the birth of the Weimar Republic, then it was extinguished in Germany with the demise of the republic. The Bauhaus ideas, expressed mainly in architecture, were socially, economically, artistically, and technologically progressive. And they were anathema to the totalitarian, anti-humanistic Nazi regime. The Bauhaus school was therefore closed soon after the Nazis' rise to power, and its proponents persecuted. — Published 2000.1129
	NEW MEDIA, CONTINUING DEBATE From its beginnings, the Bauhaus was the site of a debate over the relative influence of art and technology in design. This summer, 80 years after its founding, the school witnessed a new twist on the debate. Only this time the technology in question was digital. — Published 2000.1018
	TWO BAUHAUS BUILDINGS: A PARADIGM SHIFT The Bauhaus School buildings at Weimar and Dessau in Germany capture the dichotomy of an early 20th century debate about the impact of technology on architecture. The underlying issue was whether creativity or technology should be the stronger design determinant. It is interesting to revisit these two famous buildings, by Henry Van de Velde and Walter Gropius respectively, in light of this debate. — Published 2000.0830

Walter Gropius