Level: 3B. Content
Content living inside a Group.
Preparing Original Artworks
Conservators worked for months to prepare the room’s objects for display.
Posted onFilling in the Gaps
Everything in Elaine Wormser’s bedroom is part of Joseph Urban’s total-work-of-art. But what if items are missing?
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Models – Getting It Right
Scaled models were made to check proportions and line before items went into final production.
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Reproducing the Carpet
To avoid the potential stress and damage that might result from installing the remaining portions of the original wool carpet, a reproduction floor covering was created in collaboration with the Langhorne Carpet Company. Referencing a fragment of the original carpet, artists recreated Joseph Urban’s design pattern and custom-matched yarns to replicate the carpet’s original colors. […]
Posted onUpholstery Fabrics
The color and patterns of the fabrics that Urban designed and used in the Wormser Bedroom were integral to the interior’s overall design. Unfortunately, no original fabric fragments remained to guide the recreation of the lampshade, hassock, and chair upholstery. Our only clues existed in the black-and-white 1930 photographs of the room; Elaine Wormser’s recollections; […]
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Researching the Room
Clues in blueprints, photographs, design sketches, invoices, and recorded interviews came together to unlock the story of this modern masterpiece. Our team began by carefully examining all primary documentation about the bedroom, Joseph Urban, and the Wormser family. We consulted photographs of the bedroom taken just after its completion in 1930, a blueprint of the […]
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Measurements: A Forensic Approach
Forensic skills are not exclusive to detective work, they can also be used to recreate an Art Deco bedroom.
Posted onDrake Tower
The Drake Tower was erected on the last parcel of vacant land facing north on Lake Shore Drive, Chicago’s “most exclusive boulevard.”
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The Neighborhood
The Wormsers’ move to the Drake Tower brought them to the “Gold Coast” of Chicago’s north shore, one of the city’s wealthiest areas. The tower’s tenants were within walking distance of the city’s business center and the best clubs, schools, and amusements. It would have been a marvelous locale for a young woman coming of […]
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The Floorplan
The Wormsers lived in the Drake Tower’s expansive 27th-floor penthouse, which boasted four generously sized bedrooms, as well as separate quarters for three live-in domestic workers. Situated on the first setback of the skyscraper, the apartment had four large terraces—one at each corner of the building—offering panoramic views of Lake Michigan and the city from […]
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