CHICAGO – A new book and exhibit highlight several high-rise buildings in Chicago from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
You have to take a long look to see Chicago through Chris Hytha’s eyes.
“I love this city…happy to be back,” Hytha said.
Hytha, a trained architect and photographer, has a new book called “High Rises: Art Deco” which catalogs 100 skyscrapers from across the United States, including several right here in the Windy City.
“It’s the home of the skyscraper. Maybe New York would disagree, but this city has some of the most magnificent art deco and some of the most historic pre-art deco as well from the 1880s and 1890s,” Hytha said.
He captured some spectacular photos floor by floor with a drone before stitching them together.
“The images, as you can tell, are kind of larger than life and they feel surreal,” Hytha said. “These are very much like renderings. The are photos of the real buildings, but there’s a process of post processing of using my skills as a photographer and designer of how to best share these buildings.”
Writer Mark Houser had a huge helping hand in Hytha’s book, researching and writing the histories behind each building.
“The joy of being part of this project is I try to, with my stories, tell a little bit of the spirit and the soul of the building, because it’s through the people who designed it and then paid to have it built and ask for it,” Houser said.
The book took three years to complete and also served as the inspiration of an exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Center, which invites visitors to study the details of the historic buildings face-to-face.
“To see that in a way you can’t see from the street makes it just that much more fascinating,” Houser said.
“Part of the inspiration or the mission of this project is to shine a new light on these old buildings and hopefully inspire the designers of tomorrow to look back and appreciate these buildings and maybe think about ornamentation a little bit and think about how we can make our buildings as beautiful as we did 100 years ago,” Hytha said.
In many ways, their book serves as a love letter to the art deco movement celebrating its centennial decade.
“That’s exactly what it is. It’s a coffee table love letter to a style of architecture that is really unmatched,” Houser said.