Soldier Field: No landmark status for you!
An interesting article in the A&E section of the Tribune today does a pretty good job explaining why Soldier Field deserves to be stripped of its National Historic Landmark status. For those not registered, the author presents the usual architectural criticsms of the stadium, goes on to present some examples of avant-garde architecture that successfully blended with the existing area (Bilbao, Spain’s Guggenheim Museum, the recent addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, the renovation of Berlin’s Reichstag, and even the new band shell in Millenium Park), and concludes that stripping the NHL status might serve as a warning for future architects (and their sponsors) to exercise more care to blend the new with the old.
What got me about the fracas this week between da Mayor and the press was how the defenders of the current Soldier Field talk about how it blended old and new. That’s the problem, there’s no blending—no transition area that has aspects of the old and new. Instead, there’s a jarring break point between stately columns and an imposing glass and steel structure. There are aspects of the new stadium that look okay, but unfortunately the best view of these are from the lake. The worst aspects of not only the seating bowl but also its (lack of) integration with the original structure are painfully in view each time I drive past on Lake Shore Drive.