Lambda Alpha International's 75th Diamond Anniversary Weekend Program

Register Now!  Special Rate of $265 per night at Hotel Sofitel until September 20.

Program Highlights

Wednesday evening October 19

·         President’s Reception Early Bird Party hosted by former International President Eugene Stunard at 155 Harbor Drive over looking Millennium Park and Chicago Skyline.  RSVP separately.

Thursday evening October 20

·         35th Biennial LAI Awards Dinner at the Signature Room at the 95th Floor of the John Hancock Center.

Friday, October 21

·         Mobile “Look-See” tour featuring: Historic Pullman University Commons Roosevelt Square Lunch at Costa’s with presentation by Bill Little, Managing Director for Development, Chicago Housing Authority Afternoon free

Friday evening:

·         Open House and reception at the Chicago Architecture Foundation in Daniel Burnham’s Santa Fe Building featuring: Dr. Eugene Lowe on the "Influence of Richard T. Ely on America." Open House:  Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Lohan Caprile Goettsch, and VOA.

·         Dinner on own

·         Midnight Madness after dinner come back to Hotel Sofitel to watch the video program featuring the “Trial of Richard T. Ely” along with dessert.

Saturday, October 22

·         Mobile “Look-See” tour featuring: Lakeshore East 111 South Wacker Drive Museum Campus/Central Station

Saturday Evening:

·         75th Anniversary Gala on the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion Stage at Millennium Park

Program Details:

Thursday, October 20

The 75th Anniversary Weekend Experience will begin Thursday evening at 6:00 pm with a hosted reception and dinner celebrating the 35th Biennial Lambda Alpha International Awards.  Lambda Alpha Awards are an important part of the organization recognizing leading individuals and projects in various land economic fields.  The reception and dinner will take place at the Signature Room on the 95th Floor of the John Hancock Center, 875 North Michigan Avenue – on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile -- just one block from Hotel Sofitel.  The Signature Room will provide a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow LAI members and their guests while enjoying a spectacular view overlooking Chicago, as we honor our International Award winners.

The evening will also feature an overview of the Chicago metropolitan area Ron Thomas, Executive Director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission.

Friday, October 21

We will begin Friday with an Ely, Look and See Tour beginning at 8:15 am.  We will depart from the Hotel Sofitel at 20 East Chestnut Street on a LAI member guided tour that will first take us to Historic Pullman, Illinois where in 1884 Richard T. Ely and his wife Anna traveled from Baltimore on their honeymoon.  Spending little time in the Honeymoon suite of the Hotel Florence (named after George Pullman’s daughter), Richard and Anna explored the utopian workers community, built by George Pullman to “fairly judge what was being done at Pullman . . . after the ‘look and see’ method.” 

Richard and Anna spent two weeks at Pullman and his evaluation was published in Harper’s Monthly, February 1885.  To see what Ely wrote in this award-winning article you can visit the Historic Pullman Foundation website www.Pullmanil.org and click on the Links tab on the right side.

During our tour of Pullman, we will visit the Florence Hotel and then one of the residents of Pullman will open their home for us to take a tour.

Larry Lund, International President and Michael Shymanski, Ely Chapter President

From Pullman, we will weave our way back north guided by several Lambda Alpha members who will discourse on important developments along the way.

University Commons

Our next stop will be University Commons.  Formerly the 1.3 million square South Water Street Produce Market served Chicago restaurants for more than 75 years.  Enterprise Companies purchased the 73 vendors that owned the market for $35 million and after investing $175 million created a six building 824-unit mid-priced condominium project.  The project features use of historical tax credits that help reduce the housing cost to buyers.  The development team will give their perspective as we tour the model units.

For information on this project visit www.theenterprisecompanies.com

Roosevelt Square

Just a short distance away from University Commons is Roosevelt Square that sits on a 100-acre site, covering 37 city blocks on Chicago’s Near-West Side.  When built out it will provide over 2,400 new homes in 6 phases over 10 years.  Phase 1 includes 414 total units: 181 rentals and 233 for-sale homes, 74 of which are designated as affordable for-sale units.  Roosevelt Square has the look and feel of the existing structures in the neighborhood.  This “Authentic Chicago” architecture is reflected in red, grey and brown brick 3 & 6 flats, attached townhomes and multi-family elevator buildings that offer varied streetscapes and corniced rooflines.  Brad White of LR Development Company, the master planner, will provide the tour of the area and we will visit one of the units.

For information on this project visit www.rooseveltsquare.com

Lunch at Costa’s Restaurant

We will end our morning tour at the Greek restaurant, Costa’s.  At lunch, we will listen to Bill Little, Managing Director of Development for the Chicago Housing Authority talk about their “Plan for Transformation” that is exemplified by the Roosevelt Square development that we had just seen.  For more information on the Chicago Housing Authority's plans visit www.thecha.org

After lunch we will return by bus to the Hotel Sofitel, were you will be free for the afternoon to tour Chicago on your own.  Hotel Sofitel is just one block west of Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.  You might also want to take advantage of the tours from the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  Tours begin at 2 pm. and we may be able to arrange for the bus to stop near their information center where the tours begin.  LAI will return to the Chicago Architecture Foundation for Friday evening’s program.  For more information on tours visit www.architecture.org

Friday Evening

Chicago Architecture Foundation

At 5:30 PM, our bus will leave Hotel Sofitel and take us to the Chicago Architecture Foundation at the Santa Fe Building 224 South Michigan Avenue for talk on Richard T. Ely and an open house at three of prominent Chicago architectural offices that are within the building.

Richard T. Ely was the inspiration for the founding of Lambda Alpha International and over the past year, I have been “On the Road with Ely” writing articles for Online KeyNotes about him.  This evening we will have a short presentation by Dr. Eugene Y. Lowe, Jr. Assistant to the President of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois on the influence of Richard T. Ely in American Culture.  In 1987, Dr. Lowe wrote his Ph.D. thesis, Richard T. Ely, Herald of a Positive State.  This will provide a wonderful opportunity for all members to learn more about the person who few today recognize, but who had an enormous influence upon American culture and on current political thinking.

After Dr. Lowe’s presentation, we will have a reception and you can tour two exhibits at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which includes “Five Architects” an exhibition of five public buildings in the Midwest, by five different architects, and “Holabird & Root: 125 Years.”

Incidentally, in 1956, John W. Root served as president of the Ely Chapter of Lambda Alpha International.

In addition to the exhibits, three prominent Chicago architectural firms in the Santa Fe Building, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill ( www.SOM.com ), Lohan Caprile Goettsch ( www.Lohan.com ), and VOA ( www.VOA.com ) will open their doors for Lambda Alpha to tour their offices and view their latest projects.

The Friday evening event will end at 7:30 pm and you will be on your own for dinner Friday night.  Lambda Alpha will provide suggestions for restaurants and we suggest that you make reservations at your favorite place.  You will need to provide your own transportation back to the hotel or to your place of dinning Friday evening.

Midnight Madness Friday Night

After dinner save room for dessert and come back to the Hotel Sofitel by 10:30 pm for Midnight Madness, where the Chicago Ely Chapter is sponsoring the showing of the TV program, “The Trial of Richard T. Ely”  This program aired in December 1964 as part of the Profile in Courage Series that was inspired by President Kennedy’s book, Profile in Courage.  It stars Dan O'Herlihy, Edward Asner, and Leonard Nimoy (Yes, Dr. Spock!).  In 1894, Richard T. Ely was suspected of advocating subversive doctrines because he insisted that his students evaluate all ideas.  His acquittal by the regents is now seen as a landmark of American academic freedom.  To help enjoy this quaint program, we will have dessert, coffee, and wine available to wind up the day.

Saturday, October 22

Our bus will depart from the Hotel Sofitel at 8:30 am.

Lakeshore East

One of the major benefits of Millennium Park is the spin-off of a new residential neighborhood to the north.  Magellan Development Group is developing part of the famed Illinois Center Development that consisted of 83 acres, the remaining 28-acres known as Lakeshore East.

Lakeshore East when built out will have 9.7 million square feet in fourteen high-rises and two office buildings surrounding a six-acre park.  Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were master planners and Philip Enquist of SOM who lead the AIA Award winning planning effort will be one of our featured speakers along with Joel Carlins, president of Magellan Development Group who is the master developer.  During our first stop, we will tour one of the residential developments already open.  Visit www.Lakeshoreeast.com for more project information.

111 South Wacker Drive

Next stop will be 111 South Wacker Drive designed by Lohan Caprile Goettsch this new 51-story one million square foot office building is 80% pre-leased with Deloitte serving as one of its major new tenants.  In spite of high office vacancy rates in downtown Chicago, several new office buildings have recently opened along Wacker Drive.  James Goettsch, FAIA - the design principal at Lohan Caprile Goettsch -- will discuss how he addressed new technologies and environmental concerns in designing the building.  We will also hear from Drew Nieman, Principal of the John Buck Company the developer discuss how this building filled a niche in what is apparently an overbuilt market; these discussions will take place as we tour some of the floors of this new building.  Visit www.111southwacker.com for more project information.

Central Station/Museum Campus

Our final stop of the morning tour will be Museum Campus/Central Station.  We started the morning by visiting Lakeshore East, which is on the north side of Grant Park and we will complete our tour by visiting the new neighborhood that is developing south of Grant Park.  Like Lakeshore East, Central Station was also railroad property that is now being developed into new high-density neighborhoods.  We will tour one of the buildings in Central Station that has been developed by Fogelson Properties and Forest City Enterprises.  Gerald Fogelson and Tim Desmond will discuss their development as we tour one of their current projects in Central Station.  When Central Station is built out, this 88-acre development will have more than 8,000 new homes.  Gerald Fogelson has just written a book on his development titled, Central Station, Realizing a Vision: How an Abandoned Rail Yard Became Chicago’s Largest Mixed-use Community.  To learn more about this development visit www.centralstationsouthloop.com

Saturday Afternoon is Free

Lambda Alpha 75th Anniversary Gala

A bus will leave Hotel Sofitel at 6:30 pm for Millennium Park for a black-tie (cocktail dress for women) preferred event.  We will have cocktails in the Choral Rehearsal Room followed by dinner on the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Stage in Millennium Park.  For more information visit www.millenniumpark.org

Dinner will be by Entertaining Company, twice winner of the prestigious Jean Banchet Culinary Award – Best Caterer, Chicago.  Students from Chicago’s famous Merit School of Music will provide dinner music.

Our featured speaker this evening will be Neal Peirce.  Neal is a foremost writer, among American journalists, on metropolitan regions, their political and economic dynamics, and their emerging national and global roles.  His writing career began in 1975 and he is now dean of the Washington Post Writers Group.  He has authored ten books on America’s states and regions.  His more recent books include Citistates: How Urban America Can Prosper in a Competitive World, and Breakthroughs: Recreating the American City.  He lectures on regional, urban, federal systems and community development issues and has appeared on Meet the Press, the Today Show, National Public Radio and local media across the country.  For information visit www.citistates.com

Neal Peirce, LAI Journalism Award winner and KeyNote Speaker for Saturday night.

Return will be on your own this evening, which you can make a lovely mile walk along Michigan Ave to the Hotel, or a short taxi ride.

Hotel Sofitel Chicago Water Tower

Our host hotel is the Accor’s Hotel Sofitel Chicago Water Tower acclaimed by the American Institute of Architects to be one of the two best hotels in Chicago.  Designed by the French architect Jean-Paul Viguier the Sofitel at 20 East Chestnut (860 North), just one block west of Michigan Avenue -- the “Magnificent Mile” – will serve as the meeting place for the Board meetings and the departure point for our bus trips.

Lambda Alpha has a select number of rooms reserved at $265 per night (single or double) plus tax.  Please call the hotel early to reserve rooms.  We have rooms at this rate until September 20.  Call now for reservations 877-813-7700.

Pre-Event Party hosted by former International President Eugene Stunard and his wife Joan for both Ely Members registered for the Weekend and those LAI members and their guests arriving early for the 75th Weekend on Wednesday, October 19.  The President’s Reception will be in their spectacular 43rd floor condominium that overlooks Millennium Park and the Chicago skyline.  This event will be at Harbor Point, 155 N Harbor Drive from 6 PM to 8 PM.  You will need to RSVP for this event.

[Click Here] to register for the 75th Anniversary Weekend Experience Online

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