Chicago architect Dirk Lohan is getting the coolest work at the moment. Blair Kamin reports he's been hired to restore/renovate two iconic Mies Van Der Rohe buildings, one here and one in Berlin. It kinda makes sense— he is Mies' grandson. And quite talented. The Chicago job is a challenging remodeling of the lobby at 330 N Wabash. The 1971 tower was meant purely as an office building but with the pending arrival of the Langham Hotel (occupying floors 2-13), the lobby needs to "say" something other than "rigid workplace". The Berlin job is more wholesale, but Lohan's role is that of consultant for the selection of an architect. The building? None other than Mies' magnificent New National Gallery, built in 1968. [Cityscapes]
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