AT&T Plaza, Chicago. Image created by @dailyoverview, source imagery: @nearmap
This article was originally published on Common Edge as “Blair Kamin Ends His Run as Architecture Critic of the Chicago Tribune”
Last Friday, January 15, Blair Kamin ended his 28-year run as architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune. I have known and admired Kamin for almost two decades. His writing on architecture and the built environment was sharp and lucid; he was not afraid to offend the less than delicate sensibilities of those in power.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1999, Kamin was an activist critic, very much in the tradition of Ada Louise Huxtable and Allan Temko. Late last week, I reached out to Kamin to talk about the role of critics, and the end of his singular run.
