Posted 22 months ago in Trending, Chicago Architecture Center
2 MIN READ – The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) has unveiled a commissioned Langston Allston mural at the Center’s façade at the entrance of the Illinois Center located at the corner of Wacker and Michigan Avenue. The mural is in celebration of Black History Month and will be on display through mid-March.
Allston took inspiration from Jacob Lawrence's series of “Builder” paintings, as well as the monumental murals of Diego Rivera, to represent a world where communities have control of the built environment surrounding them, to maintain and reuse in ways that suit their needs. A world where design protects and elevates people in innovative and empathic ways. The mural uses the façade of the now demolished 1907 Michael Reese Hospital in Bronzeville as a backdrop. While the original structure is gone, there is value in preserving its memory, both as a work of classic Chicago architecture & as the site of numerous globally significant advances in medicine. Michael Reese Hospital was created with the intention of serving all people through medical care and research.
Langston Allston’s work has been featured at the Contemporary Art Center, in New Orleans, the Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art, in Brooklyn, and is in the permanent collection of the City of New Orleans. Langston has also created public art throughout Chicago for community organizations like the Bloc, and the Mural Movement, as well as artwork for the Chicago Bulls & Chicago White Sox.
Guests to the Chicago Architecture Center can also view the new exhibition Singer Pavilion: Honoring Legacy Through Adoptive Design to learn more about the future developments in the Bronzeville community.
Visit Chicago Architecture Center’s website for more of their Black History Month programming.
