(rshsdepot) Chicago exhibit to highlight stations and ground-flying trains

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_home.com>]

Chicago exhibit to highlight stations and ground-flying trains
The Hawk Eye - Burlington, Iowa

On my Eurail travels around Europe a few years back, I was fortunate enough
to experience some "ground flying."

By "ground flying" I refer to my arrival in Berlin via the ICE train, the
equivalent of the TGV in France, the Japanese bullet train and the U.S.
northeast corridor's high-speed Acela service for Amtrak.

As we raced across the countryside, the digital speedometer at the front of
the car displayed a speed of 250 kilometers per hour. That translates to 150
mph U.S. customary.

I don't know what speed the California Zephyr averages across the high
lonesome, but I'll venture a guess it's about half that of the European
speedballs.

On the trip mentioned above, I fell in love once again with sleek trains and
modern stations.

Which is why I'm looking forward to a promised Christmas gift, that being a
catalogue of an exhibition which opened earlier this month at the Art
Institute of Chicago.

"Modern Trains and Splendid Stations," which runs through July 28, 2002, is
an exhibition on the architectural advancement of inter-city railway
transportation.

It highlights approximately 45 extraordinary projects, exploring the design,
engineering, technology and urbanism of modern train travel, including both
trains and railway-related buildings.

I expect the catalogue will whet my appetite for a trip to Chicago and a
visit to the real thing.

Included in the show, which is subtitled "Architecture and Design for the
21st Century," are exhibits in a number of cities I passed through in
Europe, including projects at Lehrter Bahnof, Berlin, Bijlmer Station,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Channel Tunnel United Kingdom Terminal,
Folkstone, UK.

There are also displays on the trains mentioned above.

I'm confident the exhibit will appeal to both architecture and train
enthusiasts alike. I count myself in both camps.

Photos at UNI

Visitors to the newly renovated Lang Hall on the University of Northern Iowa
campus at Cedar Falls might recognize five of the photos installed there.

Correctly, they might recognize the prints as the work of Fritz Goeckner of
Burlington.

"Iowa Landscape by Iowa Artists" is the theme of 54 two-dimensional works
purchased for interior spaces at the facility.

Fritz was among Iowa artists who accepted the school's Arts and Architecture
Committee's invitation to submit works for consideration for purchase.

The committee sought a broad exploration of the notion of landscape,
including land, farm, water, sky, weather, city and garden using such media
as painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, computer prints and collage.

Fritz said his prints include scenes of Burlington, Fort Madison and
Dubuque.

His prints are novel. He removes the blacks and whites from his images, the
result being what he calls "straight color photos."

Don't ask me to explain the process, because I can't. I'm just not a
technical person.

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