The architect who designed Chicago’s Harold Washington Library will be profiled in a new WTTW documentary hosted by popular Chicago TV host and tour guide Geoffrey Baer. Architect Thomas Beeby, is this year’s winner of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical and Traditional Architecture. He’s the first Chicagoan to win the prize. The new 30-minute documentary THE INVISIBLE HAND: ARCHITECT THOMAS BEEBY premieres on WTTW on Thursday, March 21 at 8:00 pm, with rebroadcasts on Friday, March 22 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, March 24 at 10:30 pm.
When Thomas Beeby was a child, he enjoyed playing with model trains. And he enjoyed building the miniature buildings he made to sit alongside the tracks. When he went to his River Forest bedroom window he had a clear view of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house next door. And Beeby’s grandfather, an engineer with a concrete business, would talk about working with Wright. Architecture surrounded the young man from an early age. Beeby says that for as long as he can remember he knew he wanted to be an architect.
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