The 9th annual Chicago Summer School focuses on the American roots of Modernism. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, progressive architects and patrons moved the city to the forefront of technological and aesthetic experimentation. Through expert lectures and tours, course directors Tina Strauss and Diane Dillon lead a survey of 19th- and early 20th-century architecture, art, design, landscape and preservation.

Participants will visit several private homes and public buildings, parks and landscapes, with access to the era’s most significant spaces: the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, H. H. Richardson’s Glessner House, Adler & Sullivan’s Auditorium Theatre Building, Burnham & Root’s Rookery Building, the superb decorative arts collection at Crab Tree Farm, and America’s first planned industrial community of Pullman. In Oak Park students will see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio, the newly restored Unity Temple and other seminal designs. Local experts and Principal Guest Lecturer Richard Guy Wilson will accompany the class at many of the sites. Additional visits include Gilded Age mansions in the historic Gold Coast, such as the Samuel Nickerson mansion, as well as St. James Cathedral with its surprising St. Andrew’s Chapel by Bertram Goodhue. The class will have the opportunity to take unique tours of the collections at the Art Institute.

Course Director: Tina Strauss

Assistant Director: Diane Dillon

Principal Guest Lecturer: Richard Guy Wilson

Past Lecturers include Heidi Ruehle, Anne Sullivan, Gunny Harboe, Jennifer Carlquist, Sally Kalmbach, Tom Gleason, William Tyre, Tim Wittman, and John Waters

Tuition for the Chicago Summer School* is $3,400, and includes expert instruction, lectures, course materials, tours, 7 nights’ hotel accommodation in the downtown Loop, entrance fees, receptions, and some meals. Accommodation throughout the program will be in single-occupancy rooms with en-suite facilities. Full and partial scholarships are available. Please email Anne Mallek, Summer Schools Administrator, at Admin@VSASummerSchools.org, with any additional questions.