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Drexel Town and Garden Houses First Floor Unit, Chicago, Illinois, Isometric

A work made of graphite on vellum.

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  • A work made of graphite on vellum.

Date:

April 27, 1954

Artist:

Bertrand Goldberg
American, 1913–1997

About this artwork

Built on the once-magnificent Drexel Boulevard in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, Goldberg’s Drexel Town and Garden Houses were planned as a racially integrated community of 64 townhouses, placing homeownership within the reach of lower- and middle-income families. The first floor of each townhouse features large windows that extend the open plan of the main living space to rear patios enclosed with perforated concrete-block walls to provide privacy while preserving the cohesion of the site plan. While the press linked Drexel to larger mechanisms of urban renewal, Goldberg carefully framed his project as one focused on the improvement rather than the transformation of an established neighborhood where good transportation and other desirable features already existed. Poised between individual and mass housing, the Drexel Town and Garden Houses signaled a new direction in Goldberg’s work, focusing on
issues of density, resources, and context—in short, “a thing called urbanism.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Architecture and Design

Artist

Bertrand Goldberg (Architect)

Title

Drexel Town and Garden Houses First Floor Unit, Chicago, Illinois, Isometric

Place

Chicago (Building address)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1953–1955

Medium

Graphite on vellum

Dimensions

53.4 × 91.9 cm (21 × 36 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Archive of Bertrand Goldberg, gifted by his children through his estate

Reference Number

RX23664/125.6

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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