M A K I N G H I S T O RY I
Creating a Dance: Interviews with Bruce Graham and Maria Tallchief T I M O T H Y J . G I L F OY L E
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ew American artists have dominated their respective crafts as architect Bruce Graham and ballerina Maria Tallchief have done. In a city sometimes known as the birthplace of the skyscraper, Graham created the two signature buildings of twentieth-century Chicago: the John Hancock Center (1970) and the Sears Tower (1974). Graham also played influential roles in creating a plethora of other Chicagoland structures: the Inland Steel Building (1958), the United Airlines Office Building in Elk Grove (1962), the Brunswick Building (1965), the Richard J. Daley Center (1965), Baxter Travenol Laboratories and Headquarters in Deerfield (1975–85), Three First National Plaza (1981), Madison Plaza (1982), the Gateway Center (1963–83), One Financial Place (1986), the north expansion of McCormick Place Exposition Center (1986), Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church (1990), and the central plan for Dearborn Park (1977–81). The Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, recognizing the distinctive contribution of Graham’s work, awarded special prizes for five of these projects during his professional career. Many consider Maria Tallchief to be the prima ballerina in American ballet history. Dancing for George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet from 1947 to 1965, she played a leading role in more than twenty ballets. In Firebird (1949), the ballet that became Tallchief’s signature performance, critic Walter Terry wrote that she “gave a performance of historical proportions.” Displaying her dazzling footwork, extreme concentration, and split-second timing, Tallchief danced with the Paris Opera, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Chicago Opera Ballet, and the Chicago Lyric Opera. In 1955, a year after appearing on the cover of Newsweek magazine, she reportedly earned the highest salary in ballet history. In 1965, Tallchief received the Capezio Award, one of the most distinguished honors in American dance.
54 | Chicago History | Spring 2000
Architect Bruce Graham, winner of the 1999 Daniel Burnham Award for Distinction in Architecture, designed Chicago’s two best-known skyscrapers, the John Hancock Center and the Sears Tower.