“Discourse-provoking images” is certainly a phrase that describes the ?Vertical City? exhibition at this year?s Chicago Architecture Biennial. In the voluminous Yates Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center stand 16 models of skyscrapers, each 16 feet tall and designed by 16 emerging firms. It’s a towering display where one feels like they are walking through a virtual world of online architectural images.
This virtual city is part of a theoretical competition in three parts that began back in 1922, when the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, wanted a gleaming tower to represent the ambitions of his newspaper. He used hyperbole to describe what he wanted to build, which was ?the most beautiful office building in the world.? Architecture often begins with ego before an idea (and sometimes even before necessity) emerges. Clients want to project a certain image of their company or of themselves, making image both the driving force and the greatest weakness of architecture. When the desire to produce a prestigious architectural image is handled correctly, it can be a powerful political, historical, or social statement that provokes discourse and change. However, if dealt with carelessly, the focus on image can bring scorn upon a project, producing skin-deep results or buildings that merely look like caricatures of the past. Think of some of the buildings you know that have the name of the current U.S. president affixed to them. Architec...