“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 2024. © Klaus. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.
The 10-foot long hand-drawing by Klaus features sixty of the most inventive building designs entered in the famed 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower architectural competition, as well as flying machines, elevated walkways, monorail tramways, and other fantastical details dreamed up by the artist.
Below is an excerpt of the RIBAJ announcement highlighting the comments from the jury:
“Chia-Yi Chou was fascinated by ‘the way he’s brought all of them together, and more, to tell the story of a moment of architectural history—all rendered as if it’s real but which is in fact a work of complete fiction.’ Jan-Carlos Kucharek called it a ‘Soanic pasticcio in drawn form,’ to which Sarah Wigglesworth added that the piece can be understood ‘in the historical context of JM Gandy’s painterly efforts to represent the pantheon of Soane’s built and unbuilt works.’
Knut Ramstad appreciated how ‘it’s not just about the level of detail of the drawing but the layering of the Chicago story that leaves you able to study the drawing for hours.’”
You can read more about about the award here.
“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 2024. © Klaus. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.
“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 2024. © Klaus. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.
“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 2024. © Klaus. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.
“Welcome to Tribuneville: An Imaginary Vision of an Old Chicago That Could Have Been” is a drawing presented by MAS Context and 150 Media Stream. It was first conceived during a 2022 conversation between Klaus and Iker Gil, founder and editor-in-chief of MAS Context, about the upcoming 100-year anniversary of the Chicago Tribune Tower Competition. A first version of “Welcome to Tribuneville,” both in flat-drawing form and as a short video, premiered at “Chicago Tribune Tower Competition at 100,” an event organized by MAS Context in November 2022. In Fall 2023, a version of the work was published as a cartoon in the Mexican architectural magazine Arquine #105: “Mediations.” “Welcome to Tribuneville” has now been drastically expanded for the large-scale installation at 150 Media Stream. The animation has been created by David Rubioma.
“Welcome to Tribuneville” will be on view until December 30, 2024. 150 Media Stream public viewing hours for “Welcome to Tribuneville” are Mondays to Fridays (11:00 AM–2:00 PM) and Saturdays (1:00 PM–10:00 PM).
“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 150 N Riverside Plaza, Chicago, 2024. © Michael Salisbury. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.
“Welcome to Tribuneville” by Klaus, 150 N Riverside Plaza, Chicago, 2024. © JaNae Contag. Courtesy of 150 Media Stream and MAS Context.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
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?”