When’s the last time you saw an architecture critic have a regular television appearance on the nightly news? (Bruno Zevi’s epic talk show comes to this writer’s mind, but not many other instances.) If there’s one city where this makes the most sense, it’s Chicago—a place where, according to ABC7 Chicago’s Lee Bey, “people care as much about architecture as they do weather, sports, and politics.”
“Our identity as Chicagoans is often wrapped up in our buildings,” Bey told AN. “You know, the neighborhoods where we come from. Newspapers here understand that architecture criticism isn’t just about saying, ‘Oh, here’s the latest project and look how beautiful it is.’ Architecture criticism is a lens for looking at the city.”
“Architecture is central to Chicago’s conception of itself,” added Ed Keegan, Chicago Tribune’s new architecture critic. “That’s not true in most American cities where architecture and design is tangentially part of a place’s identity. Chicagoans are always interested in talking about architecture and knowing more about it.”
Bey, architecture critic for Chicago Sun-Times, just started his new job at ABC7 Chicago. There, he will make frequent TV appearances about all things Chicago architecture. (His first segments covered the Obama Presidential Center, Bally’s Casino, a new stadium for the Bears; and historic preservation.) Bey’s new gig started around the same time Keegan joined Chicago Tribune. (Keegan took over that spot from Blair Kamin, who left Chicago Tribune in 2021.) He’ll write two columns a month there.
“You have to be hopeful with a lineup like that”
“The Tribune is one of just a few newspapers in America that has a tradition of regular architectural criticism that reaches back more than four decades,” Keegan told AN. “But it’s a shortlist—Paul Gapp, Blair Kamin, and now me. After Blair retired, I expected that tradition to end, but this has only happened due to Blair’s generosity and drive to see that he was not the end of the line. I’m excited by the opportunity to extend the legacy that they started.”
Chicago’s criticism scene is indeed flourishing; the city is home to myriad preeminent writers (and AN contributors) apart from Bey and Keegan. “Chicago is fortunate to have a number of talented young writers on the scene right now, including Lee Bey, Elizabeth Blasius, Zach Mortice, Kate Wagner, and Anjulie Rao, among others, each writing for different outlets here and nationally. You have to be hopeful with a lineup like that,” Keegan said.
The two new appointments for Keegan and Bey come amid a crisis however in architecture criticism more broadly. Carolina Miranda, who just left The Los Angeles Times, recently said that “You can count the architecture critics with staff jobs with one hand.” This dearth is why Bey said “getting to go on television and discussing architecture on a regular basis is really a big deal.”
“The forces that drive architecture”
More than a decade ago, Bey was a regular pundit for Chicago’s local Fox station during the evening broadcast, so his new segment on ABC7 Chicago isn’t his first rodeo. And for Bey, talking about architecture on paper versus TV is similar, but also different. “Television has become pretty natural to me,” Bey said, looking back on his journalism career.
“It’s important to not get bogged down in too many details, right? Because there’s a time element you’re dealing with on television,” Bey continued. “So you have to talk about the highlights and get to the point of what a thing is about. You have to understand the clock. It’s both fun and challenging. I’m also helped along by great anchors. They know what questions to ask on air and how to make the ride more comfortable.”
“Standard journalism barely acknowledges the existence of architects and architecture,” echoed Keegan. “How often do you see a story about a new project where only the developers are named?”
“But beyond just naming the architects,” Keegan elaborated, “architectural criticism is an opportunity to engage every interested reader in the continuing conversation that the profession provides. I want the Tribune’s readers to come away with greater knowledge of the forces that drive architecture and that can help them critically evaluate the built world they inhabit.”
