Credit: Andrew Miller

Gallery owners turn raw space in the former Montgomery Ward building into an artful condo

Paul and Dedrea Gray bought a blank canvas in 2006, raw space near the top of the former Montgomery Ward headquarters on Superior Street, and turned it into a three-bedroom condo with an artful style.

Glass walls lit from within enclose the dining room, where a king-sized dandelion light fixture hangs overhead. The kitchen's cooking station is clad in a dramatic ebony mahogany, paired with stainless steel cabinetry and a stone island in a theatrical vignette, a clean look with all small appliances and cooking doodads out of sight. And the primary suite's bathtub sits in a platform of ipe wood, like a little boat at dock.

Via Crain's Chicago

Chicago Museum Director Under Investigation After Airplane Incident

James Rondeau, the president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, has taken a voluntary leave from the museum after an incident on board a flight to Germany last month.

During the incident, which occurred on April 18 and was first reported by CBS News, police were called to United Airlines flight 953 after it landed in Munich from Chicago, following reports that Rondeau had stripped off his clothes. CBS reported that the incident occurred after he drank alcohol and took prescription medication.

Via New York Times

NEH Redirects Funding from Canceled Grants to Trump’s “Garden of American Heroes”

The National Endowment for the Humanities on April 24 announced a new grant program supporting the design and creation of works for the National Garden of American Heroes sculpture park that President Donald Trump has ordered to be established in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary of independence. Announced by Trump in 2020, during his first presidency, the garden will feature life-size statues of “250 great individuals from America’s past who have contributed to our cultural, scientific, economic, and political heritage,” according to the NEH. 

Via Artforum