Yo’s truly has talked with prominent Chicago architects about various subjects over the last week or so and today we spoke with David Brininstool of Brininstool & Lynch, which designed the Streeterville high-rises 550 St Clair and 535 St Clair.
Some architects embrace neo-historicism, others don’t, but Brininstool had a different take: “Even though we are a contemporary, modernist firm I wouldn’t say that’s the only valid approach, it isn’t,” he says. “That’s the beauty of architecture. There is more than one right way to do things. It’s not the approach or style, it’s more the quality of pursuing that style.” Brininstool’s pet peeve?
“There are too many examples where the quality of those approaches are not as good as they should be, where they apply an approach – whether it’s modern or neo-historical – and they are applying it as though it’s clothing, rather than intrinsic to the planning of the building.”
We asked Brininstool his favorite non-Brininstool residential project in 2006. “It’s too early to tell, but I’m intrigued by MoMo,” he says of Smithfield Properties’ project, under construction on State Street.
“I think that could be a very interesting building. There’s a certain energy about that building. It’s a different approach than our work. I’m being simplistic, but we deal in a miminialist, overall more volumetric expression but that building is more articulated, more textured – it’s almost baroque.”