Whether or not you’re a big fan of Sun-Times art and architecture critic Kevin Nance, you’ve got to give his editors credit for letting him do all kinds of design coverage that has been missing in the paper for, well, a long time.
Architecture is one of those topics that probably scares editors at major metro dailies, because they have some idea it’s esoteric and technical. But that really depends on the way it’s covered. Architecture is everywhere, and on some level, everyone can relate to it. Although his Sunday piece on the red-hot Chicago architect Douglas Garofalo was a little flat and soft, Nance’s story today about Chicago architecture on screen is a good example. We all know the buildings in the new Sandra Bullock/ Keanu Reaves picture [which from the trailer looks like a real bomb] and understand how real locations add immeasurably to our pleasure in seeing a movie. [Also interesting to learn that the lake house of the title was actually built specifically for the movie . Bet that kept production costs low.]
But what’s more encouraging is that Nance is starting to cover material that you just never saw before in the Sun-Times. He covered NeoCon, the gigantic furnishings trade fair that just wrapped up at the Merchandise Mart, but rather than attempting a survey of trends and novelties, he did a really insightful piece on the market supremacy of the Herman Miller Aeron chair, analyzing its amazing success and wondering whether another chair will ever take its place in the hearts of status-conscious office workers.