Lost Buildings: an on-stage radio & picture collaboration between Ira Glass and Chris Ware...

by Ira Glass, Chris Ware, Tim Samuelson

The story of a boy named Tim Samuelson, who became obsessed with old buildings, especially the buildings of Louis Sullivan in Chicago, during the 1960's and 70's when they were being torn down.

Lost Buildings is a collaboration between Ira Glass and graphic novelist Chris Ware: Ira did the sound, Chris did hundreds of drawings. The result is a 22-minute story, with sound and images, that has never been heard on the radio (it was originally produced as part of a live This American Life stage show). The DVD comes packaged inside a beautiful 100-page book, also meticulously designed by Chris Ware, and filled with photos of the Louis Sullivan buildings mentioned in the story.

Genres: Architecture, Art, Journalism, Nonfiction, History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Ira Glass is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.

Reviews

[Antidote · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, this is not a book, though it comes inside a small book giving some background to the story. It’s a dvd and has an exquisite 20minute short animation on it. If you watch it (and it can be found on Vimeo) you will learn something of architecture, Louis Sullivan’s iconic late 19th C Chicago, Mies Van der Rohes new modernism and the decline of the ornamental in our civic spaces. This beautifully drawn, composed and scored story is so much more than just a tale outlining the capitalist lurch of the curtain wall in what could really be any city in the world, but is told through the eyes of a small boy and is therefore deeply personal. The boys tells of growing up to form a crime fighting (crime against architecture!) duo with a historian of Sullivan buildings and how they travel round the city recording and salvaging pieces of buildings in the process of being demolished. It’s poignant, I cried when I first watched it, but it’s ultimately full of joy- joy in seeing a master storyteller (Ira Glass) and a master artist (Chris Ware) put together a compelling piece of genius.

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could have been a visual postmortem image dump of a few Louis Sullivan buildings that used to exist in Chicago. However, Chris Ware used his talents as a visuals-based storyteller to bring these static images into a highly engaged story with a beginning, middle and end.

I saved a copy of this book from being thrown away without knowing what it really was and before I realized Ira Glass and Chris Ware were the brains behind it. I wasn't expecting to be so moved by images of indescribably beautiful bygone buildings and the people who cared so so so much about them.

[Andrew Kline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend bought me this set years ago. Titled "Lost Buildings" (not in database) it contains a DVD of a live recording of This American Life discussing the architect Louis Sullivan and the demolition of his buildings in Chicago. The book is a companion to the video, detailed photographic records of the buildings discussed. I don't have many thoughts on architecture, but this project makes it easy to see what was so special about these buildings.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful little ode to some of Chicago's most beautiful buildings, punctuated by a sneaky gut punch at the end.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an amazing project - such an eye for detail! What a waste the buildings were torn down... It is great Nick took so many photographs back then and tried to salvage the beautiful Sullivan design panels, alas at the cost of his own life.

(I would have liked to read a little bit more about the decissions to tear the buildings down. How was their overall condition? Were they still safe but obsolete. How many years were spent on the design and construction of these buildings and how long did their demolition take?)

[SeaOfSound · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Ware has a tremendous animated short to a vignette from This American Life. It's an engaging emotional story of a young boy who salvages pieces from Louis Sullivan buildings being torn down in Chicago circa the 1960's and his mentor who passes the proverbial torch to him. The book is filled with his stories and archival pictures never seen before from the salvages of the Garrick Theatre and Chicago Stock Exchange.

[Aubrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

saw this when i saw ira (cuz we're such BFFs we are on a first name basis) live. great stuff.

[Justin]

I don't have this yet, I really want it.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ira Glass and Philip Glass are cousins?! Of course!