CHICAGO _ It was a year of stark contrasts in architecture: The burning and near-destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral versus the revival of once-decrepit buildings like Chicago's Old Post Office. A group of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings finally achieved global recognition yet the world lost several noted design figures, among them I.M. Pei and Chicago's Stanley Tigerman.
Building boomed. Quality was hard to find.
Here are the projects and events that stood out in 2019. Plus some notable losses.
_ Wright buildings take their rightful place: In a step that was long overdue but still welcome, eight buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright were named to the United Nations' list of the world's most significant cultural and natural sites.
Located in six states and completed between 1909 and 1959, the buildings placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List include the bold concrete structure of Unity Temple in Oak Park and the Prairie style masterpiece of the Robie House in Chicago.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a Chicago-based nonprofit that seeks to preserve and protect Wright structures, spearheaded the nomination in cooperation with the U.S. Interior Department.
Separately, the Robie House reopened to the public for tours after a meticulous $11 million-plus restoration by Chicago's Harboe Architects. Credit for that transformation also goes to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, a Chicago-based nonprofit that conducts tours of the Robie House and other Wright sites.
_ Heroic firefighters save Notre Dame: One of the worst days of the year was April 15, when fire ravaged the majestic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, toppling its delicate Gothic revival spire and destroying its wood-supported roof. But there was a bright spot: The courage of French firefighters, who saved the great medieval monument.
"Some, at the peril of their own lives, went inside the (cathedral's) northern tower to protect it from flames at a moment when it could have collapsed at any time," The New York Times reported. "The decisive moment saved the structure."
French President Emmanuel Macron gave the firefighters the medal of honor for their courage, a fitting reminder that buildings have many protectors.
_ New life for Chicago's Old Post Office: After sitting empty for more than 20 years _ an eyesore that straddled the Eisenhower Expressway _ the Chicago's Old Post Office welcomed its first tenants after an $800 million-plus redevelopment.
Headed by Chicago office of the global firm Gensler, a team of designers turned the hulking structure, built in 1921 and the early 1930s, into hip office space without sacrificing its historic character. They restored the building's once-crumbling art moderne facade and its elegant main lobby. They even retained corkscrewing mail chutes.
It remains to be seen how well the giant building works as an office space, but kudos are nonetheless in order for the designers and the developer, New York-based 601W Cos.
_ A moving memorial to victims of gun violence: One of the highlights of the third Chicago Architecture Biennial was a memorial to victims of gun violence around the U.S. Designed by the Boston office of the MASS Design Group, the memorial consisted of four house-like structures that displayed in the biennial's Beaux-Arts headquarters, the Chicago Cultural Center.
The design was a crystalline beauty, its glass walls covering wood honeycombs in which mementos of gunshot victims were displayed. The project poignantly made the point that the victims should be remembered as people, not anonymous statistics. The architects hope that the design, a prototype, will evolve into a permanent display. It remains on display as the biennial continues through Jan. 5.
_ The cathedral of caffeine: The world's largest Starbucks, which opened in the old Crate & Barrel store on North Michigan Avenue, didn't just appeal to Chicago's appetite for being the biggest and the tallest. It delivered a shot of retail theater that made it one of the finest flagship stores on the Mag Mile.
Designed by an in-house team led by Starbucks Chief Design Officer Liz Muller and Vice President Jill Enomoto, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Chicago, as this emporium is known, respected the modernist Crate & Barrel store by Solomon Cordwell Buenz yet gave it a fresh identity. Here, the playful industrial spirit of "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" met the sophisticated Scandinavian modernism championed by Crate & Barrrel's founders, Gordon and Carole Segal.
_ A bold addition to the skyline: Chicago's high-rise building boom has yielded more architectural quantity than quality. A notable exception is the new NEMA Chicago tower, which, at 896 feet, isn't just Chicago's tallest rental skyscraper but also gives the Near South Side a new landmark. New York architect Rafael Vinoly's design creatively reinterprets the muscular setback style of Willis Tower while clean-lined interiors by New York's David Rockwell draw inspiration from Chicago's street grid and the building itself.
_ Finally, too many goodbyes: The design community lost an unusual number of major figures in 2019. In Chicago, notable deaths included Stanley Tigerman, a leader of the "Chicago Seven" architects who challenged modernist orthodoxy and opened the way for a more inclusive view of Chicago architecture. We also bid farewell to Franz Schulze, the prolific art critic and author who wrote biographies of architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson.
Other notable architects who died were New York's I.M. Pei, the globe-trotting modernist who brought new life to the Louvre with a giant glass pyramid; Cesar Pelli of New Haven, Conn., who designed the Malaysian twin towers that took the world's tallest building crown from Sears (now Willis) Tower; and Kevin Roche of Hamden, Conn., whose credits include New York's Ford Foundation headquarters and Chicago's Leo Burnett Building. Pei and Roche were winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field's highest honor.
