Lynn Becker
cmgiulini.bsky.social
Lynn Becker
@cmgiulini.bsky.social
drifter/writer on architecture, culture and Chicago, photographer specializing in out-of-focus images. there will be posts on opera, apologies in advance.
A little snow…
November 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
The New Grainger Conservation Center, design team led by Art institute architects Barozzi Veiga, looks really cool, but it’s replacing exhibition space.
www.artic.edu/articles/121...
Conservation and Science Take Center Stage in the New Grainger Center | The Art Institute of Chicago
Every artwork in the Art Institute’s collections—whether it’s on view in the galleries, protected in storage, or traveling the globe—comes under the care of the Conservation and Science team.
www.artic.edu
November 5, 2025 at 5:52 AM
Updates you have no real interest in but I’m going to tell you anyway because I’ve got nothing else to do. Incredible efficiency! Tests already analyzed: I have a big gallstone! Which is strange because they’re usually very painful. Removal shouldn’t be difficult, or so I’m told.
October 31, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Being wheeled to CTSCAN. (Very colorful!) Such great people at Northwestern! Everything’s fine- just in for tests. For Billie Rubin somebody.
October 31, 2025 at 8:25 PM
The Castle of Tomorrow doesn't look like a castle anymore. Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey looks at how fast food chains are abandoning architectures that once defined their brand for generic replacements.
chicago.suntimes.com/architecture...
White Castle craves a new look for its restaurants
The original 1921 White Castle restaurant design — and the variations that have followed — was inspired by the old Chicago Water Tower, the crenellated landmark that survived the Great Chicago Fire.
chicago.suntimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 3:00 AM
I know governing is difficult, but this is ridiculous. Springfield proposes to shovel $1.5 billion to Chicago area transit with ZERO reform and added bureaucracy. For Chicago, they want a $7 ticket tax, raising the take to 16%, PLUS $5.00.
www.chicagobusiness.com/politics/tra...
Last-minute, $1.5B transit compromise being debated in Springfield
The transit revenue package relies on increasing the transit sales tax in the six-county region and transportation related sources. It also includes a steep tollway hike.
www.chicagobusiness.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Another case of a place I never went to, but took pleasure just knowing it was around. Now it's not. What are the odds the mansion is now on death row?
chicago.eater.com/restaurant-n...
Legendary French Restaurant Les Nomades Has Closed After Nearly Five Decades
The fine dining institution ended its run amid the impending sale of its building.
chicago.eater.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:38 AM
"My name is Jamieandias, King of Bankers
Look on my works, you peons, and despair!"
www.dezeen.com/2025/10/21/2...
Foster + Partners completes New York skyscraper for JPMorganChase
Foster + Partners has completed a stepped supertall skyscraper in Manhattan for American financial company JPMorganChase, emphasising its unique base.
www.dezeen.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:20 AM
great video of some wonderful creations for this year’s Arts After Dark parade.

www.instagram.com/reel/DQabsV6...
architectureforpublicbenefit on Instagram: "Happy Halloween, Chicago! A collective of architects brought their favorite Chicago spaces to life, transforming them into headpiec…"
Happy Halloween, Chicago! A collective of architects brought their favorite Chicago spaces to life, transforming them into headpieces and parading down State Street for the Arts in the Dark Parade. Huge thank you to our incredible architects and dreamers who participated: James Young as the Harold Washington Library OwlRachel Much as Amanda Williams’ Colored TheoryJessie LaFree as 60 E Lake Self Park GarageJosh Mings as Lake Michigan from behind AdlerLayne Murphy as the Stock Exchange ArchJoseph Hernandez as 311 S. Wacker Light CrownPawvel Smith as a Chicago three-flatJan Concepcion as Thermal and Infiltration Performance of Chicago Vernacular ArchitectureElizabeth Blasius as Damen SilosAnthony Hurtig as the Chicago Water TowerMejay Gula as the Magikist SignSharon Xu and Robert Becker as Crown FountainRobin Randall and Urbs in Horto Odile Compagnon as Tensegrity Homage to Buckminster Fuller Juan Suarez as Henry Hinds Laboratory Emmett Mach as Lakefront Trail Core-Loc StructureJason Meyering as the Palmolive BuildingGouri Huya, Aishwarya Shivakumar, and Galila Sima as SullivanKirsten Landmark Masih as FlamingoAllaa Abdelsaid as Chicago River BridgesMolly Rice as Goth TargetNeha Chopra as Rookery StairsJames Silvestro as Calumet Fisheries and the 95th Street BridgeSamuel L Cusack as the Art Institute of ChicagoEliseo Elizarraraz as Carl St. StudiosAlex Serbanescu as 541 North Fairbanks CourtNathan Rennich as his top five Chicago windowsAdam Fogel as Cloud GateJordan Hicks as Chicago Vernacular Architecture as depicted by the painter Roger BrownJohn C. Wolf as Wrigley Field (Cubs) ScoreboardEmily A. Rupright as White Sox exploding scoreboardChana Haouzi as the Carbide & Carbon BuildingJoseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison as the Illinois Regional Library for the Blind and Physically HandicappedEmerson Rice as FlamingoAnnabell Ren as West Garfield ParkCatherine Wetzel as North Avenue Beach HouseUtkarsha Laharia as Lines in Four Directions by Sol LewittSarah Blankenbaker as the DrakeBrandon Hall as Thompson Center Air RightsEve Fineman as the Pritzker PavilionPortraits by @eriellebakkumphotography @artsinthedark @aiachicagoView all comments
www.instagram.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:24 PM
"Enough steel for a skyscraper... 23 stories high... millions of light bulbs!" A look back at Chicago's greatest billboard, the giant Chevrolet sign right across the street from what is now Millennium Park.
arcchicago.blogspot.com/2014/06/20-f...
20 Feet High? How about 23 stories? The forgotten sign that Trumped Trump
Photograph: 1934, Gordon Coster, courtesy Calumet412 If the Donald Trump sign wasn't already nearing the endpoint of its 15 minutes of f...
arcchicago.blogspot.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Gratuitous advice Thursday: With all the money being spent on the Obama Center and new playground across the street, you'd think they'd find some cash to fix the gloom-laden, incredibly, derelict 60th street viaduct leading up to them.
October 30, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Gratuitous advice Thursday: Really should be vertical signage marking the Blue Line Dearborn entrance so people wheeling their luggage know they're going in the right direction. No elevator or escalator, so maybe a plaque on entering Block 37 a few doors down for elevators/escalators.
October 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
There'll always be an England
October 30, 2025 at 2:18 PM
A week lost to illness. Things seen on trip to clinic, then to pick up prescription. On Dearborn, outdoor dining definitely done for the season, gut rehab at former golf site...
October 30, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Nazi wannabes, thugs, and gangsters, one and all, domestic terrorists perverting the legal system to criminalize dissent and quash all opposition to their atrocities, just like the Jim Crow
South did to preserve the obscenity of American apartheid.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Feds charge Kat Abughazaleh, other political candidates in conspiracy indictment tied to Broadview protests
The indictment alleges that the six were among a group who surrounded a government vehicle near the Broadview ICE facility Sept. 26 and tried to stop a federal agent from going there and “discharging ...
chicago.suntimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:12 PM
The Wall Street Journal chronicles Michigan Avenue's revival. Beware the usual don't-live-there and maybe have-never-even-visited comments from trolls whose only information sources are Fox and Trump's fantasies.
www.wsj.com/real-estate/...
The Fight to Restore Chicago’s Magnificent Mile to Its Glory Days
The area’s crime rate is down, and cheaper rents have prompted retailers to lease new space.
www.wsj.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Cinemark Seven Bridges in Woodridge is one of the theaters the chain is equipping for 70mm IMAX in anticipation of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" next year. AMC has also added IMAX to its Roosevelt Collection complex in Chicago.
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Cinemark to Add 70mm Imax Screens Ahead of Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’
Cinemark will add a number of Imax screens ahead of the release of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey."
variety.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:23 AM
If Hawley can get 5 or more Republicans to sign on, shouldn't Dems support this bill? Or course, Stepford Speaker Mike Johnson would probably still keep the House out of session.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/28/o...
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 AM
"Frankly impressed," said Bill Gates after meeting Trump. The head of Nvidia sucks up to Trump, parrots his disinformation. Visions of trillion-dollar sugarplums dancing in their heads, the U.S. version of the German industrialists comes to full flower.
www.wsj.com/tech/ai/nvid...
Nvidia CEO Praises Trump in MAGA-Themed Speech Ahead of Trade Talks
With access to the Chinese market in jeopardy, Jensen Huang emphasized the company’s support for the administration’s agenda.
www.wsj.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:19 AM
That war against climate change? We lost. The percentage rise in temperatures will double, so let's say global temperature isn't that important. AI, and its insatiable appetite for power, barely mentioned. Our tech Gods have spoken. Obscene profits are to be made!
www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-pa...
October 28, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reminder: opening night of Met Opera's Carmen with Isabel Leonard and Michael Fabiano, free live stream, tonight, Tuesday, October 28, 6:25 CDT.
www.metopera.org/Season/Radio...
October 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Mas Context has a great on-line symposium on Northerly Island at 100, with contributions from leading architects, scholars and activists. Here's my take from last May. I doubt much has changed: one of Chicago's greatest jewels, scandalously neglected.
mascontext.com/observations...
October 28, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Just cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post . A great newspaper; downfall personified in this convoluted, mind-twisting editorial that reeks of control by a centi-billionaire owner intent on enabling a gangster President despoiling his office and destroying the Republic.
wapo.st/4o2FcGU
Opinion | In defense of the White House ballroom
Donald Trump vs. the NIMBYs
wapo.st
October 27, 2025 at 1:26 AM
"Take care of this house.
Keep it from harm
If bandits break in, sound the alarm..."

Alan Jay Lerner, Leonard Bernstein, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjZU...
Cynthia Erivo performs Bernstein's "Take Care of This House" with the National Symphony Orchestra
YouTube video by The Kennedy Center
www.youtube.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:39 AM
"Hitler engineered annihilation; today’s migrants are not facing that. But the moral test feels painfully familiar."
A very sad account of the short, troubled Chicago refuge of a skilled craftsman and his two children, shipped to the city by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
share.inquirer.com/rrEHtT
This is what is happening to immigrants and citizens in Chicago right now | Opinion
Right now in Chicago, immigrants are fleeing the militarized city at night, helped by U.S. citizens who fear for their own safety.
share.inquirer.com
October 26, 2025 at 4:57 PM