Wicker Park Chamber of Commerce in Chicago is holding a design contest for the new fountain cover at the Polish Fountain on a triangular strip of land during the winter months.
I got the same message. Rumor has it DeStefano has been hired to put another Puerto Rican Flag / Gateway there....
Personally, I'd like to see more of these:
The Nelson Algren fountain cover competition has now been taken off hold and will proceed. Thank you for your patience while we worked with the City of Chicago to finalize plans for the competition and receive answers to your inquiries.
The updated information is attached. This includes an updated timeline, contact information, and a drawing of the Polish Triangle and fountain. This drawing is to scale when printed on 11x17 paper. A list of inquiries and answers regarding the competition is also included. We are still working on a few final answers, which we will send you as soon as we receive them. The original RFP is also attached for your reference, and includes information that is still relevant. Please read both of these attachments carefully for all pertinent information and requirements; incomplete submissions will not be considered.
For those of you who already sent us submissions, feel free to resubmit or update your designs following the new timeline. Otherwise, we will keep your designs on file.
If you have any further questions, please send them to me; email is preferred. We look forward to receiving your designs!
WPB is no longer advertising the fountain cover competition, nor are they accepting any more applicants. They will only be accepting submissions from people who submitted their resumes before the date in early May....
From Wikipedia, Regarding Nelson Algren, for whom the fountain at the center of the Polish Triangle was dedicated:
(Nelson) Algren's complex relationship with Chicago Polonia
Algren, who famously compared Ashland avenue to "a bridge between Warsaw and Chicago, had a complex if not troubled relationship with Chicago Polonia; his second wife Amanda Kontowicz was Polish, and his friend Art Shay would reminisce how Algren would listen to old Polish love songs sung by an elderly waitress while gambling away. The city's Polish Downtown was significant in the literary output of Nelson Algren who lived for years in the area. Polish bars that Algren frequented for his notorious gambling habit, such as the Bit of Poland on Milwaukee Avenue figured in such stories such as Never Come Morning and The Man With the Golden Arm. His writing's central focus on the area's Polish American underclass against the background of prevalent anti-immigrant xenophobia was taken by Poles as Anti-Polonism and resulted in the book Never Come Morning being banned for decades from the Chicago Public Library system over the massive outcry by Chicago Polonia.
The book's publishing coincided with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union: a period when Poles, like Jews were labeled as "racially inferior" by Nazi ideology which eventually resulted in the death of six million Polish citizens. Chicago's Polish-American leaders thought Never Come Morning played on these anti-Polish stereotypes resulting in a massive campaign against the book launched by the Polish press, the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, as well as a host of other Polish-American institutions. A flood of articles appeared in the local Polish newspapers and letters were sent to Mayor Ed Kelly, the Chicago Public Library, and to Algren's publisher, Harper and Brothers. The general sentiment of the campaign can be gleaned from this Zgoda editorial: "The author is a product of a distorted mentality, for in his treatment of inmates of houses of ill repute he is in an element all his own and no doubt was on a narcotic jag when he concocted this story....When free copies begin to find their way into the hands of unsuspecting victims it's a signal that this anti-Polish propaganda is definitely directed by Nazi money." It went on to say that Algren, "cannot possibly be without malice in his heart against the Poles." The Polish American Council even sent a copy of a resolution condemning the novel to the FBI[12]. Algren and his publisher tried to defend themselves against these accusations, with the author purportedly explaining to a library meeting that the book had nothing to do with nationality and everything to do with poverty.
Later controversies to commemorate Algren would bring these old wounds back to surface. Two incidents regarding honoring Algren's presence in Polish Downtown played out most prominently:
The first involved Algren's last Chicago residence, 1958 West Evergreen Street. A walk-up apartment just east of Damen Avenue in the former Polish Downtown neighborhood of West Town, an area that had been dominated by Polish immigrants and was once one of Chicago's toughest and most crowded neighborhoods. Shortly after his death, Evergreen Street was renamed Algren Street. The change caused controversy and was almost immediately changed back. The area is now a gentrified, popular nightlife district.
The second involved renaming the Polish Triangle in what had been the center of the Polish Downtown after Algren. In the end a compromise was reached where the Triangle kept its name and a newly installed fountain was named after Algren and inscribed with a quote from Chicago: City on the Make circling the fountain's base: "For the masses who do the city's labor also keep the city's heart."
You should also go to Taste of Polonia for Inspiration...you need to be absorbed for it to have any cultural-poltical relevance.
Besides, The Okapiec Triplets (Alizma) are performing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusD4Fw2Us0
Wicker Park Design Contest
Wicker Park Chamber of Commerce in Chicago is holding a design contest for the new fountain cover at the Polish Fountain on a triangular strip of land during the winter months.
Polish Triangle
see this competition on Bustler.net
I am so In.
i can see why all the yuppies are moving there.
A design competition for this? Seriously?
Thanks Evil-P
So did they just totally close up shop on this? i got an email saying to just hold off any work for now - like 2 days before it was do.
I got the same message. Rumor has it DeStefano has been hired to put another Puerto Rican Flag / Gateway there....
Personally, I'd like to see more of these:
Sweet, Just got this message today:
The Nelson Algren fountain cover competition has now been taken off hold and will proceed. Thank you for your patience while we worked with the City of Chicago to finalize plans for the competition and receive answers to your inquiries.
The updated information is attached. This includes an updated timeline, contact information, and a drawing of the Polish Triangle and fountain. This drawing is to scale when printed on 11x17 paper. A list of inquiries and answers regarding the competition is also included. We are still working on a few final answers, which we will send you as soon as we receive them. The original RFP is also attached for your reference, and includes information that is still relevant. Please read both of these attachments carefully for all pertinent information and requirements; incomplete submissions will not be considered.
For those of you who already sent us submissions, feel free to resubmit or update your designs following the new timeline. Otherwise, we will keep your designs on file.
If you have any further questions, please send them to me; email is preferred. We look forward to receiving your designs!
Moira O'Donovan
So is there a new deadline?
Yes, 09/05/08.
WPB is no longer advertising the fountain cover competition, nor are they accepting any more applicants. They will only be accepting submissions from people who submitted their resumes before the date in early May....
From Wikipedia, Regarding Nelson Algren, for whom the fountain at the center of the Polish Triangle was dedicated:
(Nelson) Algren's complex relationship with Chicago Polonia
Algren, who famously compared Ashland avenue to "a bridge between Warsaw and Chicago, had a complex if not troubled relationship with Chicago Polonia; his second wife Amanda Kontowicz was Polish, and his friend Art Shay would reminisce how Algren would listen to old Polish love songs sung by an elderly waitress while gambling away. The city's Polish Downtown was significant in the literary output of Nelson Algren who lived for years in the area. Polish bars that Algren frequented for his notorious gambling habit, such as the Bit of Poland on Milwaukee Avenue figured in such stories such as Never Come Morning and The Man With the Golden Arm. His writing's central focus on the area's Polish American underclass against the background of prevalent anti-immigrant xenophobia was taken by Poles as Anti-Polonism and resulted in the book Never Come Morning being banned for decades from the Chicago Public Library system over the massive outcry by Chicago Polonia.
The book's publishing coincided with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union: a period when Poles, like Jews were labeled as "racially inferior" by Nazi ideology which eventually resulted in the death of six million Polish citizens. Chicago's Polish-American leaders thought Never Come Morning played on these anti-Polish stereotypes resulting in a massive campaign against the book launched by the Polish press, the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, as well as a host of other Polish-American institutions. A flood of articles appeared in the local Polish newspapers and letters were sent to Mayor Ed Kelly, the Chicago Public Library, and to Algren's publisher, Harper and Brothers. The general sentiment of the campaign can be gleaned from this Zgoda editorial: "The author is a product of a distorted mentality, for in his treatment of inmates of houses of ill repute he is in an element all his own and no doubt was on a narcotic jag when he concocted this story....When free copies begin to find their way into the hands of unsuspecting victims it's a signal that this anti-Polish propaganda is definitely directed by Nazi money." It went on to say that Algren, "cannot possibly be without malice in his heart against the Poles." The Polish American Council even sent a copy of a resolution condemning the novel to the FBI[12]. Algren and his publisher tried to defend themselves against these accusations, with the author purportedly explaining to a library meeting that the book had nothing to do with nationality and everything to do with poverty.
Later controversies to commemorate Algren would bring these old wounds back to surface. Two incidents regarding honoring Algren's presence in Polish Downtown played out most prominently:
The first involved Algren's last Chicago residence, 1958 West Evergreen Street. A walk-up apartment just east of Damen Avenue in the former Polish Downtown neighborhood of West Town, an area that had been dominated by Polish immigrants and was once one of Chicago's toughest and most crowded neighborhoods. Shortly after his death, Evergreen Street was renamed Algren Street. The change caused controversy and was almost immediately changed back. The area is now a gentrified, popular nightlife district.
The second involved renaming the Polish Triangle in what had been the center of the Polish Downtown after Algren. In the end a compromise was reached where the Triangle kept its name and a newly installed fountain was named after Algren and inscribed with a quote from Chicago: City on the Make circling the fountain's base: "For the masses who do the city's labor also keep the city's heart."
well if the architects across the street from polish square get the commission I'll have my doubts.
perhaps the greatest challenge of this competition if that it be realized within a 30K budget.
We all know you cant do jack with 30K in ChiTown.
It will be fun - at least entering was free. I suspect it wont be installed until winter 2009
Evil we should take a ride to do some reconaissance next week.
im done already - I finished it in may -
actualy we should go - in case we go to round 2 it actually has to work
You should also go to Taste of Polonia for Inspiration...you need to be absorbed for it to have any cultural-poltical relevance.
Besides, The Okapiec Triplets (Alizma) are performing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusD4Fw2Us0
i love Polish beer - does that make me honorary?
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