John Vinci

“Sharoff’s prose and Zbaren’s photographs beautifully interweave the story of John Vinci’s life with those of the architects and iconic buildings that helped shape his career. Comprehensive and thoughtful, the narrative emulates Vinci’s considered approach not only to his contemporary practice, but also to his work to preserve the architecture of the past—its lessons and intentions—for the future. The stunning portfolio serves as a record of both Vinci’s projects and of the Chicago treasures he has helped to restore with the utmost integrity and acumen.” —James Rondeau, president, the Art Institute of Chicago

“This book makes clear that Chicago is as much John’s city as it ever was Louis Sullivan’s, Frank Lloyd Wright’s, or Mies van de Rohe’s. For John has dedicated his professional life to the study and preservation of their work as much as to the design and construction of his own. And this book shows off both to their full advantage. Anyone who loves Chicago and architecture will love this book. They might even fall in love with John, as so many of us have.” —James Cuno, president, the J. Paul Getty Trust

“Vinci’s story is interwoven with so many different and important strands in Chicago’s architectural history that John Vinci serves as a short primer on many of them, including the First and Second Chicago Schools of Architecture, the birth of the historic preservation movement, Louis Sullivan, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Alfred Caldwell, Richard Nickel, James Speyer, Tim Samuelson, and Myron Goldsmith, as well as numerous art collectors and curators who became mentors and clients.” —Geoffrey Baer, WTTW

"John Vinci, architect and activist, is a master craftsman, consonant with Mies’s statement: 'We think about the best way to use the materials and then we accept the result.' This book documents a rare architectural practice that fuses rigorous IIT training with historic preservation. It projects an amazing story that ranges from recreating Louis Sullivan’s gorgeously ornamented Trading Room to incorporating Mies’s ineffable staircase into the design of the new Arts Club of Chicago. John wanted to keep the spirit of the old, and he did, creating beautifully proportioned new spaces. These two masterworks are emblematic of this significant practice." —Phyllis Lambert, author, Building Seagram, and founding director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture