RECONSTRUCTING THE GARRICK: ADLER & SULLIVAN’S LOST MASTERPIECE, WINS SAH'S 2023 Antoinette Forrester Downing Book Award

Citation Below:

The 2023 Antoinette Forrester Downing Book Award Committee of SAH has unanimously chosen as this year’s
recipient John Vinci (ed), Chris Ware, Eric J. Nordstrom, and Tim Samuelson, Reconstructing the Garrick: Adler &
Sullivan’s Lost Masterpiece.

Reconstructing the Garrick represents a notable achievement in both book design and content. The volume traces
the history and destruction of one of Chicago’s iconic buildings, the Garrick, by Adler and Sullivan. As a
preservation story it offers an important reminder of the complexity of preservation battles in the period of urban
renewal. The contributors thoughtfully explore topics ranging from the building’s social context to its interior
figural decoration. They analyze the legal tools chosen in the contest to save the building, but also explain a
revealing context of available alternatives. These analyses serve an important educational purpose beyond simply
describing a chronology of the building’s destruction. Despite the building’s loss, the story of the distribution of
Sullivan’s many fragments provides an uplifting note and further underlines the value of the salvage operation by
Richard Nickel and others, whose protestations and advocacy work helped turn the tide against further loss of
Sullivan buildings. Interviews, contextual essays, and a timeline enrich the book. This visually rich book includes
lush historical images, superb archival photographs by Nickel, and a corpus of architectural drawings that
document the Garrick as it was built in 1892. Reconstructing the Garrick is both a visual and intellectual feast, well
deserving of this award for an outstanding contribution to preservation studies.