Blair Kamin: From the Great Fire to modernist houses to Jeanne Gang, a rich array of design books for the holidays
CHICAGO — Chicago isn’t just an architectural capital because of its great buildings. It’s a vital forum of ideas about what makes architecture great.
A case in point: this year’s crop of recommended design books. They’re all related to the city and its suburbs, but have much broader appeal.
“Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City” by Carl Smith
The grim toll of the Great Chicago Fire still boggles the mind — more than 2,000 acres and 18,000 buildings burned, about 90,000 people left homeless, 122 miles of sidewalks and 2,162 street lamps destroyed. Yet Chicago’s post-Fire recovery was just as startling. Just 22 years later, it
