The cover that announces the inaugural Chicago Review of Architecture (ChiRA) is both parody and fantasy. Parody because it takes its cue from Saul Steinberg’s spry, satirical View of the World from 9th Avenue, which graced a 1976 edition of The New Yorker. Fantasy because it torques a drone’s-eye view due east (the back cover redirects the sight line toward the opposite coast) from Wacker Drive, selectively disappearing buildings up and down the riverside. Neither word applies to the issue’s contents: For all the writerly liberties and speculative excursions in its pages, ChiRA—a special project of New York Review of Architecture developed with editorial guidance from Zach Mortice, Anjulie Rao, and Kate Wagner—closely attends to the real space and politics of Chicago, from the South Side to the North Branch. Criticism here grows from appreciation of the city’s neglected corners and alleys (and alley couches!), its abandoned residential hotels and Bauhaus holdovers. Common brick, reflective glass, and greystone façades fill out this issue’s anomalous Mies-en-scène,…
