On this walking tour, you will make many fascinating discoveries in Lincoln Park, including two historic monuments that were recently reinstalled after having disappeared years ago
As part of the William & Mary Alumni Association Weekend in Chicago, Julia Bachrach will be the featured guest for the gala dinner during a private charter cruise of Lake Michigan.
During this private luncheon program, Julia Bachrach will present “Prairie in the City,” featuring the contributions of Jens Jensen, who is widely considered Dean of Prairie style landscape architecture.
This bus tour explores significant park artworks and landscape designs representing many fascinating eras.
This walking tour will reveal the fascinating history of Grant Park, Chicago’s “Front Yard,” Grant Park.
On this tour, you will learn about how Humboldt Park served as a “living laboratory” for Prairie style landscape architect Jens Jensen in the early 20th century.
This walking tour features a broad array of public artworks from various eras in and just outside of Lincoln Park
This tour will explore Washington Park’s landscape history and public artworks including Lorado Taft’s Fountain of Time.
This tour will visit several historic park field houses with Progressive Era murals which were created to inspire and educate the immigrant residents who lived in the surrounding neighborhoods during the early 20th century.
This bus tour celebrates important milestones in the history of the city, state, and American history.
In conjunction with the Associates of the Art Institute’s theme “Inspired by the Past,” Julia Bachrach will present to the Southland Community Associations. This presentation explores Chicago’s collection of murals and paintings in park field houses during the Progressive Era.
During the early 20th century, Chicago’s renowned architects and planners Burnham and Bennett envisioned Grant Park as a magnificent French Renaissance landscape. That dream was finally realized in the 1920s, and since then Chicagoans have enjoyed a sense of Paris by visiting the city’s south lakefront.
In this presentation, Julia Bachrach will share her research, describe naming and other recent efforts to commemorate women’s contributions to Illinois history. She will illuminate the stories of many significant women who overcame great obstacles to achieve success.
This private tour includes two iconic Prairie style properties that were both completed in 1908—Unity Temple and the Garfield Park Conservatory.
In this presentation historian Julia Bachrach will highlight the work of Chicago Jewish architects from the late 1880s through the 1970s.
This presentation by landscape historian Julia Bachrach highlights the fascinating development of Chicago’s parks.
Focusing on economic, environmental, social, and political factors while highlighting each area’s character, the seminar examines the history, current conditions, and latest urban plans for three fascinating communities.
This private tour, given as part of the Illinois Parks and Recreation Conference, will highlight two fascinating historic parks on Chicago's Northwest Side: Kilbourn and Athletic Field parks.
Prepared on behalf of the Promontory Point Conservancy by Julia Bachrach, the Promontory Point Nomination, a proposed historic district within Chicago’s Burnham Park, will be formally reviewed by the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council (IHSAC).
If statues could talk, what stories would they tell? Statue Stories Chicago has given voices to over two dozen statues throughout the city. Julia Bachrach will lead this Chicago Ideas Week workshop along with writer MT Cozzola, poet Quraysh Ali Lansana, and social media specialist Jessie Jury.
This reception, celebrating the opening of the exhibits, features a panel discussion about the fascinating history of the Stables Building. Panelists include Julia Bachrach and architects Gunny Harboe and Luis Martinez.
Julia Bachrach will tell the inspiring story of how Perkins and Jensen refused to give up until they could be sure their vision for the Cook County Forest Preserves would become a reality.
Beginning of a 4-week session seminar at the Newberry Library that highlights the fascinating evolution of buildings and structures in Chicago’s parks. Through October 18.
Please join Alderman Pat Dowell, representatives of the Chicago Park District, and members of the Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens Advisory Council, and Julia Bachrach for the dedication of the Famous Chicago Women Exhibit.
Historian Julia Bachrach will lead this tour featuring significant landscapes, architecture, and artworks in Lincoln and Humboldt Parks. Sculptural highlights include: Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Standing Lincoln, Altgeld Monument by Gutzon Borglum, who also created the Presidential Memorial at Mount Rushmore; and a pair of bronze Bison produced by the sculptor of the Art Institute Lions, Edward Kemeys. On this tour, you will also learn about how Danish immigrant Jens Jensen experimented with Prairie style philosophies in Humboldt Park, and explore Alfred Caldwell’s Lily Pool, one of the nation’s few Prairie style landscapes to be designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Author and historian Julia S. Bachrach will illuminate the history of Chicago’s parks and highlight new additions such as the 606 and Palmisano Park that contribute to the city’s great park legacy.
As cycling enjoys a new Golden Age in our region, this session explores the history of bicycling in Chicago while also examining important contemporary questions. What should be done to assure that bicyclists have the appropriate infrastructure? How are cycling resources being distributed within our neighborhoods? Julia Bachrach will illuminate the evolution of bicycling in Chicago. Chicago Reader columnist John Greenfield and city planner Benet Haller will report on the city’s diverse and growing cycling community, and Maggie Melin of the Active Transportation Alliance will forecast the future of cycling in Chicago. This program is sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation.
Cost: Public $35, CAF Members 28$ Beer and light refreshments (This event is open only to guests 21 years old or older.) Register at architecture.org.
Image: Veledrome in Humboldt Park, 1936, Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
Chicago Architecture Foundation
As part of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Daytime Talk Series, Julia Bachrach will give this tour in honor of travelling exhibition The Landscape Legacy of Dan Kiley now on display in the Lecture Hall Gallery. The tour will begin at the CAF Lecture Hall, and participants will walk to the Art Institute South Garden. Julia will provide insights into Kiley’s masterful early 1960s plan that made this garden into one of Chicago’s loveliest hidden spaces.
To register: https://www.architecture.org/experience-caf/programs-events/detail/daytime-talk-dan-kileys-south-garden/
Photo: Dan Kiley’s South Garden looking towards Fountain of the Great Lakes, 2010, courtesy of Chicago Park District.
Organized through Bolling Brook Park District
This tour features many of the city’s most fascinating historic and contemporary public fountains and statues. Highlights include Lorado Taft’s Fountain of Time in Washington Park; Lincoln Park’s newly-restored Fountain Girl monument and Charitas--one of the few historic artworks sculpted by a woman artist; and Dale Chihuly’s vibrant Persian Pool at the Garfield Park Conservatory.
Photo: Dale Chihuly’s Persian Pool in Garfield Park Conservatory Aroid House, 2009, photo by Julia Bachrach.
Private Event
During the early 20th century, Chicago’s renowned architects and planners Daniel H. Burnham and Edward H. Bennett envisioned Grant Park as a magnificent French Renaissance landscape. Their famous 1909 Plan of Chicago included Versailles-inspired plans for the lakefront park. However, improvements were delayed by various obstacles. After Burnham died in 1912, Bennett remained committed to transforming the site into a magnificent French Renaissance landscape, a dream finally realized in the 1920s. During this private luncheon event, Julia Bachrach will illuminate the fascinating story of Grant Park and highlight a few other French contributions to Chicago’s parks.
Photo: Congress Plaza in Grant Park, ca. 1940. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
Private Event
This tour highlights the revitalization of Jackson Park and other South Side historic sites. Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition with its iconic golden statue, The Statue of the Republic, will be explored including the Japanese Garden and nearby sculpture by Yoko Ono. Visitors will have docent-led tours of the 1923 Stony Island Trust and Savings Bank building. Acclaimed artist Theaster Gates has transformed the building into the Stony Island Arts Bank—an event space, library, and community center. The tour includes the beautiful South Shore Cultural Center—once an exclusive country club and now a restored community center and special event venue, with lunch at the Parrot Cage Restaurant.
Photo: Aerial view of South Shore Cultural Center and Jackson Park looking north, ca. 1990, Chicago Park District.
Hear fascinating stories about Chicago’s influential women and the process of naming parks in their honor.
This event is sponsored by Park Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society and will be held at Indian Boundary Park. It is free to the public, but RSVP will be required. More information to be announced.
(Photograph: Dr. Margaret Burroughs)
This tour offers a rare and exciting opportunity for a nighttime exploration of Jackson Park, the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and iconic work of Frederick Law Olmsted. Historians Julia Bachrach, Tim Samuelson, Ray Johnson and ecologist Lauren Umek will lead the tours.
Participants of this 4- part program will learn to “read the landscape” and understand context for Dan Kiley’s modernist contributions to Chicago and to American landscape architecture.
Elgin Alive Series, Gail Borden Library
(Photo: Considered Jens Jensen’s masterpiece, Columbus Park includes iconic waterfalls, ca. 1925, Chicago Park District Records: Photographs Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.)
For Chicago Greeters volunteers. Not open to the public.
Through this presentation, Julia Bachrach will highlight Chicago’s most influential and beautiful park landscapes from the 19th century through current day.
Beginning of a 6-week Newberry Library Seminar exploring the rich history of Chicago’s parks, weaving together social, political, architectural, art, and landscape history. Through April 5.
Note: this class is now full.
