Description

Five drawings in graphite pencil with some blue and red colored pencil details on one sheet of yellow trace paper. The left third of the sheet is a composite detail elevation of the bottom, middle, and top of a skyscraper. In the middle third is a schematic elevation of the entire building. The right third features three drawings: a structural detail/section, a floor plan, and a site section showing surrounding buildings.

“Laurence Booth (MIT 1960) and Thomas Beeby were two of the architects grouped together as the ‘Chicago Seven.’ The group united in response to an exhibition that overpromoted the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his followers in Chicago. The Chicago Seven rejected Mies’s oppressively monolithic modernism in favor of history, ornament, and color. The Zimmermans, also based in Chicago, collected widely from the rich architectural culture of that city, including the work of the Chicago Seven.” –“Drawing After Modernism” exhibition text

Drawing publication history:

- Maurizio Casari and Vincenzo Pavan, “New Chicago Architecture: Beyond the International Style” (Chicago: Rizzoli, 1981).

Drawing exhibition history:

- “New Chicago Architecture: Beyond the International Style,” Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, Italy (organized with Graham Foundation, Chicago), September 11 – October 31, 1981. Curated by Maurizio Casari, Virginio Ferrari, Vincenzo Pavan, and Peter Pran.

Further reading:

- Jay Pridmore, “Modern Beyond Style and the Pursuit of Beauty: Booth Hansen and the Architecture of Laurence Booth” (Chicago, IL: Chicago Seven Press with Steel Bridge Editions, 2023).

Additional Information

Provenance: Purchased from Booth Hansen, Chicago, by Martin E. Zimmerman.

Type

signature

Location

front, lower right

Method

ink

Text

Laurence Booth 1981