The big show tonight will be at beautiful Sebring-Lewis Hall on the Grinnell College campus.

Park in the lot south of 6th Ave just east of Park Street– or park on State Street south of 6th.

Music begins at 5:30pm!

See you inside!!

Our weekly "Thursdays in the Park" live concert series continues tonight in the Central Park gazebo — a tripleheader with the MetroMix Chorus at 5:30, the Grinnell Community Band at 6:30 and Turlach Ur, a bagpipes and drums outfit, at 7:30.

The forecast today is not a good one.  So, if the weather forces us inside, the show will be held at Sebring-Lewis Hall at Grinnell College (just north of Highway 6 where State Street ends at 6th).

Check this blog today to see if we’re inside our outside. Or listen to 1410-AM, KGRN Radio.

Two pieces of Grinnell-related architecture news were in the Chicago Tribune yesterday.

Trib Architecture Critic Blair Kamin wrote about the impact of the floods in Cedar Rapids on the Louis Sullivan bank there.

Click here to go to Chicago Trib story

The Peoples Savings Bank was Sullivan’s second jewel-box bank, though it’s the least jewel-box-like of the eight.  It is owned today by Wells Fargo, which may affect the speed with which the company can finalize our plans in Grinnell to replace the winged lions at the entry.

The Trib piece speculates on the possible damage of the flood, though no one knows for sure yet because the building is inaccessible. 

Meanwhile, famed architect Walter Netsch died this week in Chicago.

Netsch, who worked for the legendary firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill, designed five buildings on the Grinnell College campus: Burling Library, the Fine Arts Building, the Forum, the PEC and Norris Hall.

The Forum, completed in 1964, is an International Style building that shows the Bauhaus influence in its use of concrete, steel, wood, and glass in a strongly integrated design. To accommodate the multiple functions of the Forum, the building has seven levels, although from the outside it looks like a single-story structure.

Netsch was unable to attend a 40th anniversary celebration of the Forum in 2005, but was interviewed for the event by History Professor D.A. Smith.  In that interview, Netsch spoke of riding the train into Grinnell for the first time and walking past Sullivan’s Merchants National Bank building.  He said he knew at that moment that Grinnell was a special place.

The Trib’s Blair Kamin also does a nice job of describing Netsch’s career, which was professionally tumultuous.

Click here for Netsch obit 

The reference in Kamin’s piece to the ‘difficult to use’ nature of his buildings reminds me of a story I’ve heard several times.

In 1982, a renovation of Burling was completed by another famed Chicago architect, Ben Weese of the firmWeese Segers Hickey Weese, Ltd. of Chicago, whose design doubled the study and shelf space available in the original building. 

As the story goes, Netsch encountered Weese on an airplane after the renovation was completed and said, "What the hell did you do to my library in Grinnell!"

As Kamin’s reflections convey, Netsch had a tremendous impact on modern architecture in the U.S.  A study of his buildings in Grinnell conveys the evolution of his style and the complexity of his ‘field theory’.

A ‘Forbes Traveler" piece wound up on MSNBC today — and reinforced what we’re trying to accomplish in Grinnell by marketing Louis Sullivan’s jewel-box bank to architecture buffs.

As James Earl Jones, playing theTerrance Mann character in "Field of Dreams" put it … ‘people will come!’

And as Russ Crawford reminds us every day, ‘you’ve got to tell them to sell them!!"

But there are a lot of people out there who want to see Louis Sullivan, Walter Burley Griffin and Cesar Pelli — and we’ve got all three of them in Grinnell.

Marvel at modern architecture

Tourists have been traveling to see buildings since the days of the Great Pyramids, but recent years have seen a big jump in "architourism," as it was first called at a 2002 conference at Columbia University. This has prompted city planners around the world to commission increasingly iconic bridges, concert halls and museums — in an effort to attract more tourism dollars.

Scholars and architects credit the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim art museum in Bilbao, Spain, for jumpstarting this architourism trend. But Gehry is hardly the only “starchitect” out there; culturally minded travelers also seek out structures built by Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid, to name but two.

At the same time, there’s a revitalized interest in classic Modernist structures, which date from the early- to mid-20th century. Public buildings, residences and planned cities designed by such influential Modernists as Alvar Aalto, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier have become the darlings of preservationists — and destination sites for cultural tourists.

"The historic preservation movement, which really only got going in this country in the ’60s, has now more than reached critical mass," says Joan Ockman, a professor at Columbia University who edited the book "Architourism: Authentic, Escapist, Exotic Spectacular." "There are now organizations all over the place whose mission is to preserve monuments of modern architecture, not just older architecture."

The majority of 20th-century Modernist icons are located in Europe and the U.S., because that’s largely where the movement was rooted. But there are notable examples elsewhere. For architourists who need to economize their time abroad, Ockman suggests looking for a “cluster” of structures.

One such cluster is actually close to home. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob and Duncan House can be seen in a daytrip from Pittsburgh. The famously zen Fallingwater, which inspired Ayn Rand’s classic novel The Fountainhead and recently underwent a $5 million restoration, is a cantilevered structure that sits partially atop a stone waterfall in the middle of the woods. The water passes underneath, which helps the structure blend with its natural surroundings. It was voted "the best all-time work of American architecture" in 1991 by the members of the American Institute of Architects.

The early-20th century American Modernists also have a strong presence in Chicago, described as "the first city of American architecture" by Dr. Greg B.C. Shaw, an assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration at California State University, Sacramento. According to Shaw, Wright’s Usionian and Prairie Styles "were based largely on the Illinois landscape that surrounds the city." One example is the Robie House, which features some of the iconic horizontal lines and overhangs that would find their way into Wright’s later work.

Designs by Modernist icon Mies van der Rohe can be found on the Chicago campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was the head of the School of Architecture for 21 years. Van der Rohe designed 13 of the school’s buildings; they reflect his cool, functional modernism. In Plano, Ill., 58 miles outside of the city, Mies’ Farnsworth House is distinctive in its purity of form and simplicity.

To see the intersection of Modernist architecture and urban planning, Shaw points to the "planned cities" Brasilia in Brazil and Chandigarh, India — two examples that grew out of a "cold sterility" often idealized in the last century. "They are modern cities that were blank slates, designed from scratch,” he says. They’re unlike the Modernism seen in Europe and the United States, possibly because they had to fit within an existing cultural context. "They show the power of modernism,” he adds, “but perhaps also its limitations since the environments aren’t necessarily warm."

Brasilia was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and urban planner Lucio Costa in the late 1950s to fulfill a clause in the Brazilian constitution to move the country’s capital. Located in what was once an empty patch of land hundreds of miles from any other city, Brasilia was designed and built in just four years. The city has an underlying socialist ideology behind its design (all apartments are rented by the government, and common workers live side-by-side with government ministers), and a visual unity throughout the buildings.

The planned city of Chandigarh, in northern India, was designed at first by Albert Meyer with architect Matthew Nowicki, but later handed off to Le Corbusier. It was commissioned after the partition of British India necessitated a new capital city be created for the Indian state of Punjab. Chandigarh was designed on a grid pattern with sectors of identical size creating rectangular neighborhoods — each with their own markets, schools and temples.

Finnish architect Alvar Aalto isn’t as widely known as many of his contemporaries, but a trip to Helsinki and its environs can provide a rewarding tour of his large public buildings, such as Finlandia Hall, and smaller residences Villa Mairea in Noormarkku. A few hours from Helsinki (by car) in Paimio, Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium was built originally as a TB ward. Aalto’s gesamtkunstwerk (or “complete artwork”) approach to this project involved all of the building’s accessories, including the furniture, designed to fit together.

It’s been a couple of years since an idiot vandal smashed the east-looking winged lion in front of the Louis Sullivan-designed bank in Downtown Grinnell.

Here he is before idiot felon destroyed him.

Here he is as his remains were being transferred for safe-keeping.

Well, I’m headed to Des Moines this week to pick up the pieces, with the intent of displaying them at the historic bank.

Wells Fargo is working with designers and terra cotta experts to determine the best options for restoring or replacing the lion, whose west-facing partner now stands alone guarding the entrance.

This has been a long process and Wells Fargo has gone above and beyond in its stewardship role.  Local bank president Mike Allen and Chamber President Lynn Budding have also been actively engaged in the replacement of the lion.

Hopefully, that task can be completed yet this year.  But within days we’ll have the remnants of that proud lion on site to serve as a reminder of what was — and hopefully will be.

The effort to develop a series of giant-sized barn quilts in Poweshiek County is moving forward.  The first ban quilt in the county was unveiled recently at the Evans farm on Barnes City Road near Montezuma.

Installation of the 8′x 8′ quilt was funded in part by the new Poweshiek County Barn Quilt Committee.  The colorful double-pinwheel pattern was created by Phil and Lois Evans’ daughter-in-law, Lisa.

Barn quilts are drawing visitors to rural areas.  Local planners point to Grundy County, which has a network of the giant wooden
quilts.  They draw thousands of visitors to that area every year.

Poweshiek County Extension Director Debbie VanArkel says the Barn Quilt Committee was formed to highlight Iowa’s rural heritage and the significance of barns and quilts and what they meant to people.

“It was just part of the fabric of everyone’s life,” VanArkel says.  She says the committee has two goals:

• To have barn quilts hanging on barns throughout the county

• To draw people to the county to enjoy the barn quilts and what the county has to offer

The committee is currently developing a brochure with a map that will be used as a tour guide.

It’s been a month since I mentioned the renovation of the historic bank in Ladora and the looming launch of a wine bar and bistro.

Well, it’s up and running!  And I have heard nothing but rave reviews!!

The bank is located on Highway 6 in Ladora, which is about a half-hour east of Grinnell.  It’s open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 9pm and Sundays from 11am-6pm.

The menu and wine list is online- and it is quite impressive.

Click here for menu/beverage list.

If you stop after reading this, mention to Brad and Colleen that you heard about them from PowI-80!!

From today’s LA Times, a look inside the Posse Foundation and inner-city students who landed at Grinnell College through that program.

Click here for story.

I also found the press release the college issued when this group of students was admitted to Grinnell in 2004.  It’s a pretty remarkable story!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dann Hayes, Director of Media Relations, 641-269-4834. For Posse Foundation offices in Los Angles, call 213-239-9590.

August 16, 2004

Ten Los Angeles high school students to reap $1 million in scholarships

GRINNELL, Iowa - Ten Los Angeles area high school students have been awarded more than $1 million in merit scholarships to attend nationally recognized Grinnell College. The students will receive a $100,000 full-tuition scholarship as Posse Scholars and were chosen from a pool of 826 Los Angeles Public School students who were nominated for the Posse Program in the early fall of their senior year.

The 10 students, all 2004 graduates, and their high schools are: Lauro Franco, San Fernando High School; Evelyn Gandara, USC Math Science Magnet High School; Nikisha Glenn, Locke High School; Sandra Herrera, Carson High School; Valentin Jimenez, Garfield High School; Steven Johnson, Westchester High School; Na Hee Bae, Belmont High School; Nakeyia Poitier, Middle College High School; Jessica Starling, Middle College High School; and Daniel Zamora, Belmont High School.

The Posse program assists the students in pursuing their academic goals and helps promote cross-cultural communication on campus. The Posse Foundation places diverse groups of high school student leaders from Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., into some of the most selective academic institutions in the country.

"As the United States becomes an increasingly multicultural society, Posse believes that leaders in this new century should reflect the country’s rich demographic mix," said Deborah Bial, founder and president of the Posse Foundation. She believes that "the key to a promising future for our nation rests on the ability of strong leaders from diverse backgrounds to develop consensus solutions to complex social problems. One of the primary aims of the Posse Program is to train these leaders of tomorrow."

"Posse is a brilliant program," said Russell K. Osgood, president of Grinnell College. "Posse students have the kinds of qualities Grinnell seeks in all of our students. They have the personality and aspirations to capitalize on the opportunity of a Grinnell College full-tuition, merit scholarship, and they have the benefit of Posse’s track record of better than 90 percent graduation rate."

The students of the Grinnell College Posse have been meeting weekly, without interruption, since January to hone their college preparation and to develop the interpersonal relationships and support mechanisms that make them a "posse."

"The students in the Grinnell College Posse are very talented student leaders," said Renee Smith-Maddox, director of Posse Los Angeles. "They are sure to be academically successful and to contribute to Grinnell’s high-achieving student body."

Grinnell College, founded in 1846, enrolls about 1,450 undergraduate students. The primary mission of the College is to provide students with a broad, deep, and life-enhancing education that includes professional success, but also personal growth and social responsibility.

The goal of the Posse Foundation is to help colleges and universities create more culturally diverse campus climates while giving urban high school students the kind of support they need to be successful in college.

- 30 -

Today’s Sunday Times has an article about the position of strength Iowa workers are enjoying — or conversely — the challenges of an inadequate labor market.

Click here for story.

The good news is all of our economic development efforts are creating thousands of new jobs.

The bad news is we don’t have enough workers to fill those jobs.

I am part of a seven-county effort to find innovative ways to address the labor shortage.  The region was developed after Newton received a $250,000 grant from the US Department of Labor to address its post-Maytag situation.  But the DOL grant required that the strategies developed encompass an entire region — which extends from Newton to Grinnell to Brooklyn to Tama to Marshalltown and Ames to Oskaloosa, Knoxville and Pella.

This is also the reason for our new efforts in Grinnell to highlight developments locally to high school and Grinnell College grads

Click here for WelcomeGrinnell.com

Bottom line — we need more workers!  We need more school-aged children!  We need more people who want to experience our exceptional quality of life, low cost of living and affordable housing.