UP FRONT The Shape of the City
Kristen Schmidt kschmidt@columbusmonthly.com @MonthlyEditor 14
Where I’m headed this month: 1. Listening in to TedXColumbusWomen speakers at the Columbus Foundation on Dec. 5. Local speakers will focus on the theme “Invented Here,” as will speakers at TedXWomen in San Francisco; the event in Columbus includes a live webcast from California. tedxcolswomen.com 2. Braving the crowds at Holiday Hop on Dec. 7, hoping to find the perfect gifts for friends and family. shortnorth.org 3. Taking in holiday movie favorites on the big screen. The Gateway Film Center screens classics such as “White Christmas” and “It’s A Wonderful Life,” and admission is free with a toy donation to the Open Shelter. gatewayfilmcenter.com 4. Warming up the ol’ vocal cords for ProMusica Chamber Orchestra’s sing-along version of Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 13 at the acoustically pristine Southern Theatre. Tickets are $25. promusicacolumbus.org 5. Continuing what’s become a New Year’s Eve tradition with friends: a decadent dinner at home, followed by games, conversation and maybe (if we can stay upright) a midnight toast.
Photo: tessa Berg
To help his naive suburban Teenager look not quite so out of place on the wide sidewalks of Chicago, my dad offered some sage advice: Don’t look up at the buildings. Gawking at the Sears Tower was the move of a rube too unaccustomed to skyscrapers to take them for granted. Thankfully, I’m not one for self-preservation. Ogle openly I did, at buildings by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Louis Sullivan. I would loiter in the Tribune Tower lobby en route to Michigan Avenue window shopping just to look at the architectural details inside. How could these buildings ever be less than extraordinary? The habit persists, and, whether jogging along the Scioto Mile or riding shotgun cruising into the city along I-70, my eyes are constantly drawn upward to the Columbus skyline. Some people think it’s unremarkable, even forgettable; every city has a few regrettable buildings. But there is so much architectural treasure to uncover. If you can, find a copy of the “AIA Guide to Columbus,” a book that acts as both a field guide to buildings and a primer for Columbus architecture appreciation. It has been a constant companion, lending stories about stately homes and skyscrapers alike. It’s a great starting place for an education on how Columbus was built and who did the creative heavy lifting. When I came to the city a few years ago, I even found a familiar name in those pages. Daniel Burnham, the architect and city planner whose ideas reshaped Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, designed two significant buildings in Columbus: the Wyandotte Building at 21 W. Broad St., which is still standing, and the Union Station Arcade, which is not. Just one arch was saved when the arcade was demolished in 1976; that’s the one you see in McFerson Commons near Nationwide Arena. The arcade does live on—in the I-670 cap, which architect David Meleca scaled based on measurements taken from the remaining original arch. For this month’s cover story (page 64), we found these and so many other fascinating stories of how Columbus came to be shaped the way it is today. We hope you enjoy gazing at these buildings, on the page and from the sidewalk, just as much as we have.
Columbus Monthly • December 2013
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