A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

On This Page

Jonathan Solomon

Professor

Contact

Bio

Education: MArch 2003, Princeton University; BA 2000, Columbia University, New York. Exhibitions: M+ Hong Kong; La Biennale de Venezia; Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa; International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo; Storefront for Art and Architecture; Hong Kong Shenzhen Biennale. Publications: Cities Without Ground, Oro Editions; 13 Projects for the Sheridan Expressway, Princeton Architectural Press. Bibliography: The Guardian, Domus China, Surface Asia, Der Spiegel, Volume, The Atlantic, The Architectural Review, Metropolis, The Wall Street Journal, Pin-up, Wallpaper. Awards: Graham Foundation; American Institute of Architects; Environment and Conservation Fund, the Government of Hong Kong; New York State Council for the Arts; National Endowment for the Arts.

Personal Statement

Jonathan Solomon, FAIA, is Professor of Architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and partner in the firm Preservation Futures. His diverse work includes award-winning adaptive reuse design, preservation consultation, and scholarship. Solomon has extensive international experience in arts leadership. He has directed schools, taught, and developed programming with institutions worldwide, including serving as founding editor of 306090 Books, curator of the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and director of the independent Chicago gallery Space p11. Solomon is a registered architect in the State of Illinois and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This 6-credit (two day) design studio teaches foundational concepts and skills of architectural design through a series of exercises culminating in a design proposal. Students practice skills of orthographic drawing and model-making in an iterative process to develop and convey ideas through the medium of architectural design. In addition to architectural design, course work includes exercises in architectural research; on-site analysis and community engagement; and precedent study; and concludes with a final presentation. At the conclusion of the semester, students participate in the Portfolio Review, a presentation and critique of student portfolios organized by faculty and students in the department's critique spaces. This course requires students to have a laptop that meets SAIC's minimum hardware specs and runs the department template including Rhino and Revit.

Class Number

1283

Credits

6

Description

Architectural preservation, art conservation, archiving and collecting, even environmental protection: all these practices share a desire to preserve things of value, but how do we decide what's valuable? Using the laws, policies, and practices of architectural preservation as a starting point this studio will ask and propose answers to the question: what's worth preserving? Students will explore how preservation practice overlaps and complements the work of different museums, archives, and collections that define value and how they protect it; and propose strategies for assembling and maintaining their own collections in whatever media they choose. Course readings will focus on the history and contemporary practice of preservation, conservation, and collecting; and visits to preservation organizations in the city of Chicago will introduce students to a range of current preservation projects. Course work will include weekly readings, discussions, field trips and tours. Students will work individually throughout the course to research how different institutions assemble and protect their collections, identify a subject of personal interest for preservation, and propose a preservation strategy for it in any medium of their choice.

Class Number

2359

Credits

3

Description

In this course the participants will explore and see historic American interiors either as on site visits in Chicago or as classroom powerpoint presentation.

Visiting appropriate Chicago interiors will give the participants an opportunity to stand in the interiors and discuss what makes them important time pieces of American history and preservation. This course is an examination of American interior design, furniture, and decorative arts from the mid-19c to the mid-1990s. The emphasis will be on the architectural and decorative interior styles (both high and common) as seen in person in Chicago but as representative of prevalent U.S. usage and their possible European, Middle Eastern, and Asian influences. Both public and private interiors will be visited and discussed. On site visits are essential.

Participants should expect to discuss the readings, on site visits, in class images as well as write three papers during the semester.

Class Number

2222

Credits

3