on saturday, 4 november 2017, readers of mas context will have the chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at selected items from the ryerson & burnham archives located at the art institute of chicago.

five chicago-based architects/offices will select items of the collection and discuss them in relationship to their practice, the discipline, and/or society. nathaniel parks, art and architecture archivist of the ryerson & burnham libraries, will share the history of the same items.

participants include:

stewart hicks and alison newmeyer – design with company
sean lally – sean lally
ann lui and craig reschke – future firm
margaret mccurry – tigerman mccurry
alison von glinow and lap chi kwong – kwong von glinow design

the ryerson & burnham archives’ collections are notably strong in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century american architecture, with particular depth in midwestern architecture. architects such as edward bennett, daniel burnham, bruce goff, bertrand goldberg, ludwig hilberseimer, mies van der rohe, louis sullivan, and frank lloyd wright are represented in a broad range of papers. major architectural events, such as the world’s columbian exposition of 1893 in chicago, the century of progress international exposition of 1933–1934 in chicago, and the world’s fair of 1939 in new york, are also represented in an individual archive.

the event is free with museum admission. please, check coats and bags before entering the library.