I first became aware of Chicago Architecture when my older brother Robert enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Design, School of Architecture. Famed architects and designers, Mies Van der Rohe and Alfred Caldwell were among his teachers. Robert studied and later taught at Mies’s illustrious Crown Hall.
When I started college at the University of Illinois at Navy Pier, I used to drop him off at IIT on my and pick him up on my way home. That is when I began looking at the buildings in Chicago in a more serious way. I was still studying language and literature and wanting spend some time in Europe, but Chicago’s skyline was always in the back of my mind.
Years later, when I became a photographer, this rich landscape was a natural place for me to go. Years later, when I was teaching Photography to architecture students, I had the opportunity to photograph our beloved Crown Hall.
Ron Gordon
2024
