garrick material from bldg. 51 archive exhibited at john vinci's garrick theater lecture held at glessner house

the john vinci garrick theater lecture was a great success. some of the images below were used in vinci's slideshow, with one of the primary highlights being his latest drawings of the theater he has spent months working on. more to follow.  

Program Description:

The Garrick Theater (originally known as the Schiller Building) looms large in Chicago history – both as a masterpiece of Adler & Sullivan and as one of the earliest organized efforts to preserve an important part of our architectural heritage.  This exclusive event will provide attendees with an intimate view of the building as experienced by architect John Vinci, who was on the front line to fight for its preservation, which then shifted to a salvage operation when demolition became imminent.

Vinci will discuss the formation of the Chicago Heritage Commission specifically to save the Garrick, and how it brought together individuals who went on to become leaders in Chicago’s preservation movement.  He will analyze the building’s structure, from its two-story bridge trusses to its towering wrought iron phoenix columns, and detail the monumental effort that preserved significant sections of exterior terra cotta, interior cast plaster ornamentation, and wall stencil designs.  The presentation will include a combination of black and white images, by fellow salvager and architectural photographer Richard Nickel, and Vinci’s own Kodachrome slides that not only capture Sullivan’s masterful design but also reveal their painstaking efforts to preserve that design through exhaustive documentation and methodical extraction of interior and exterior ornament during the building’s demolition in 1961.