"Selections from the Richard Nickel Archive at the Ryerson and Burnham Archives of The Art Institute of Chicago. Mary K. Woolever, Art and Architecture Archivist; Joe Tallarico, Digital Imaging Photographer. With contributions from the personal collections of Tim Samuelson, Susan Nickel Brunson, Nancy Nickel, Donald and Harriet Nickel, Emily Eads"--Page 264.
Richard Nickel is an urban legend of sorts. He is remembered for his brave and lonely stand to protect Chicago's great architecture, and for his dramatic death in the rubble of the Stock Exchange Building. He is remembered, too, for the photographs he left behind. This is a book about one man's relationship with his city, a remarkably personal story told through compelling photographs. Richard Nickel's Chicago is for people who love the city, and for people all over the world who value city life.
Linger on the mezzanines of fantastic movie palaces like the Oriental, sample the confectionary delights of Krantz Candies or recklessly splurge on dress shields or mustache wax at dime stores like Kresges or Woolworths. Allow yourself to be enchanted by the painstakingly prepared displays at Marshall Fields, but leave plenty of time to visit Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co., The Fair, Montgomery Ward, Goldblatts, Wieboldts and the Boston Store. Above all, meet the people behind the glitter and glamour of State Street who poured so much heartfelt energy into making it the magical place that it was. From its first bricks to future projects, Robert P. Ledermann lovingly recounts the history of this unique thoroughfare.
Boldly rising from the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago is the center of American innovation--birthplace of the skyscraper, house music, deep-dish pizza, and the Ferris wheel. Lonely Planet's smart, stylish guide can help visitors discover the best of the windy city.
"Richard Nickel, whom I had the delight of knowing during hisall too brief life, is one of the unsung heroes of Chicagoarchitecture. He was not an architect himself, nor a designer. Hesimply took pictures, but what pictures! He was, for want of abetter description, one of the most sensitive of architecturalphotographers. More than that, his life--and ironically,tragically and poetically, his death--were fused to Chicagoarchitecture. How he died tells us how he lived: for the beauty inthe works of Sullivan, Wright and the others. His story is one thatmust be told." --Studs Terkel, author "He was completely understanding of architecture and genius andof the quality of the work he was dealing with. He wassingle-minded in his pursuit and dedication to quality in history,art and architecture. That is an increasingly rare quality." --Ada Louise Huxtable, former New York Timesarchitecture critic "Richard was an excellent photographer--sensitive andintelligent, and a very good craftsman". --John Szarkowski, former Director, Photography, Museumof Modern Art, New York "Richard Nickel was one of those who saw architecture, and whopassionately and skillfully pursued its portrayal. He was one of avery small number, and to make his work known would be afundamental service to architects, students, and teachers as wellas to the art of architecture." --Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., architectural historian
In "Chicago Sketches," we visit places as diverse as Maxwell Street, Riverview, Wrigley Field, the old Clark Theater, and the National Bohemian Cemetery. We meet the famous-Nelson Algren and Yevgeny Yevtushenko-and the other people who have touched Reeder's life-Bubbie Gussie, Rabbi Mendel, and the Big Klu. We also witness moments in Reeder's life that echo through history-November 4, 1960 and November 22, 1963. Leonid Osseney's vivid illustrations make all these Chicago sketches come even more alive. "From the Foreword by Charles R. Middleton, President, Roosevelt University, Chicago IL: " Many of us carry vignettes of our lives around in our mind's eye and even occasionally pause to expand upon a moment and craft it into a silently remembered story. But most of us, and I confess to being with you in this, don't really have a startling variety of experiences and memories of people. Richard Reeder, in "Chicago Sketches," thankfully does. A good story may start with the people, as these in "Chicago Sketches" always do, but it's their context that adds flavor to the stew. It's important that someone settled in Tulsa or Old Town. It shaped him in that moment of time when you encountered him, and it says something about you that you found him there and not elsewhere. A good story, much less a collection of them like this one, has as another essential ingredient. While people and places give a story life, that life is brought into motion by the storyteller. Mr. Reeder's sensitivity to humanity touches a chord in us and provides sufficient reason to spend some time, however brief, with these people in these places long ago but not so far away. Finally, I have a confession to make. I begin reading a book today just as I did when I was in first grade. I start by looking at all the pictures (if there are any). Pictures are windows into the written text as well as visions beyond it. Leonid Osseny's illustrations in this book are a wonderful example of this. Once these illustrations have captured you, as they did me, the written words seem to take on additional meanings. Enjoy!
