MAS Context Fall Talks 2024

Welcome to Tribuneville Reception

October 8, 2024 at 6PM

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Reception for the installation “Welcome to Tribuneville: An Imaginary Vision of an Old Chicago That Could Have Been” with architectural cartoonist Klaus. The event will take place at 150 North Riverside (150 N Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606).

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Mas event 2024 welcome to tribuneville 10

“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 150 N Riverside Plaza, Chicago, 2024. © JaNae Contag. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.

During the reception of “Welcome to Tribuneville: An Imaginary Vision of an Old Chicago That Could Have Been,” an installation presented by 150 Media Stream and MAS Context, attendees will have an opportunity to watch the installation at 150 Media Stream as well as listen to a conversation between architectural cartoonist Klaus and Iker Gil, founder of MAS Context, moderated by 150 Media Stream curator Yuge Zhou.

ABOUT WELCOME TO TRIBUNEVILLE

In June 1922, the Chicago Tribune launched an international architectural competition for the building that would house its new headquarters with the ambitious goal of constructing “the most beautiful office building in the world.”

With $50,000, $20,000, and $10,000 prizes for first, second, and third place respectively, plus a $2,000 honorarium paid to ten firms that had been invited to submit their designs, the competition was an unquestionable success that earned it a storied place in the history of architecture. As much an architectural competition as a publicity stunt for the newspaper, “The International Competition for a New Administration Building for the Chicago Tribune” was part of a massive campaign that generated worldwide press coverage, attracting 263 entries from twenty-three countries, which were subsequently published in a book and featured in a traveling exhibition.

In addition to the winning entry by John Mead Howells and Raymond M. Hood, and Eliel Saarinen’s proposal—a second place that many felt should have won—the competition attracted designs from some of the most prominent architects of the time, both within the US and from the international scene, such as Walter Gropius, Adolf Loos, Bruno Taut, Max Taut, Jan Duiker, and Ludwig Hilberseimer. While most of the designs have been lost to the collective imagination, the parade of inventive proposals ranges from the beautifully elegant to the hilariously wacky, from the neo-Gothic to the Beaux Arts, from the hyper-ornamental Art Nouveau to the beautifully crafted Art Deco, from spiky Expressionism to naked functionalism, and beyond. Feeling it a shame that such a display of architectural imagination remains mostly unknown, Klaus took it upon himself to recover his favorite among these unbuilt entries and imagine a Chicago that could have been.

With “Welcome to Tribuneville,” Klaus creates an alternative vision of Chicago by asking, “what if all the entries to the 1922 Tribune Tower Competition had been built?”

This event is related to the installation “Welcome to Tribuneville: An Imaginary Vision of an Old Chicago That Could Have Been” on display at 150 Media Stream between June 17 and December 30, 2024.

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