The story of the Kehilath Anshe Ma’ariv Synagogue is remarkable in so many ways. Adler & Sullivan built it in 1890-1 at 33rd and Indiana, on Chicago’s south side. The architects had a very specific personal connection to the project—Dankmar Adler’s father was the Synagogue’s rabbi. Thirty years later, in 1922, it took on a new identity and was reconsecrated as Pilgrim Baptist Church.
And then, in 2006, a fire swept through the building leaving just its façade. Just as the site was being renovated for the National Museum of Gospel Music, the powerful winds from a 2020 derecho caused more damage. Today, there are many hands—parishioners, preservationists, and politicians alike—who have fought to ensure the building’s survival.
Professor Charles L. Davis II, an architectural historian who focuses on the role of racial identity and race thinking in architectural history and contemporary design culture, will discuss the transformation of this Chicago Landmark in Bronzeville designed by Adler & Sullivan. Through the lens of the lost voices and influences of Chicago’s Jewish and African American congregants connected to the building, he will analyze Louis Sullivan’s democratic ideals as part of the historical impact of the building and of the architect’s legacy.
This event is virtual and online only.
About the Speaker:
Charles L. Davis II is a tenured Associate Professor of Architectural History and Criticism at the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. He previously served as an associate professor at the University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning. Davis received his Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and M.Arch and B.P.S. degrees from the University of Buffalo. His academic research excavates the role of racial identity and race thinking in architectural history and contemporary design culture.
His current book project, tentatively titled “Black by Design: An Interdisciplinary History of Making in Modern America,” recovers the overlooked contributions of black artists and architects in shaping the built environment from the Harlem Renaissance to Black Lives Matter. Davis is co-editor of Race and Modern Architecture (University of Pittsburgh, 2020) and author of Building Character: The Racial Politics of Modern Architectural Style (University of Pittsburgh, 2019), which traces the historical integrations of race and style theory in paradigms of “architectural organicism,” or movements that modeled design on the generative principles of nature.
