Convention Goodie Bag with brochures, maps, and schedule. 2017 Convention Building Souvenir: Wrigley Building Bank
Memories of: Architecture, Friends, FLW, the Bean, Museums, the River, Shopping, Swapping, and lots of Little Buildings! They’ve all been packed up and are headed for home ……………….
Alaska State Bank, Museum of Science and Industry, Grand Coulee Dam
One of the Dog Sculpture guarding the entrance to the Homewood Suites, Downtown – the SBCS Convention hotel.
Magic Mountain Coaster
Elizabeth and Joe selling Souvenir Buildings at Chicago’s Randolph Street Market.
Chris delivering the Kneisel Report at the 2017 SBCS Business Meeting
Jay at the Swap Meet checking out the buildings.
Carolyn’s haul is photographed in front of the iconic parking garage.
Hollywood Bowl and Big Ben from Raffle 2017.
Lincoln, Wrigley Building
Kudos to Mark and Michael for a well-executed Convention with lots of options, camaraderie, and plenty of opportunities for acquisition of small buildings. As plans for the next conventions crystallize they will be conveyed via The Journal of the Souvenir Building Collectors Society and this website.
SBCS members from across the land and around the world are packing, planning, and heading to Chicago. By car, van, SUV… by planes small and large, it is the Gathering of the Clan.
***********WE ARE ON OUR WAY! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Governor of Illinois and the Mayor of the Windy City had a joint press conference this morning , and their message was simple. “Citizens of Chicago, bring out your little buildings and monuments, the SBCS is coming to town!” ………..OK, maybe I’m making that up. I might be a little excited!
Michael and I have been finalizing… emailing, writing, phoning, initialing, signing, printing, photocopying. Checking our lists. Making new lists.
In less than a week we will all come together to celebrate our obsessions.
How great is that?
When you get there…
Look for the SBCS signage after you check in.
Come and see us at Registration – Pick up your Convention Package.
REGISTRATION
Have breakfast every morning in the lobby.
Enjoy coffee with the gang! Buy Raffle tickets.
Thursday night – Early Bird pizza night!
Friday morning – Frank Lloyd Wright time. An early morning bus tour.
Friday night – Reception at the hotel.
Schmoozing, socializing, Show & Tell. Buy Raffle tickets.
Saturday – Early morning Architectural River Cruise. Buy Raffle tickets.
Then it’s…the Business meeting, then the SWAP MEET!
Architectural River Cruise
Buy more Raffle tickets.
Saturday night – Banquet – Auction – Raffle(Did I mention the tickets?)
Raffle – This is really a numbers game!
Where, Oh Where, Does this Ticket Go?
Sunday morning – A walking tour in the Loop.
And don’t forget the Randolph St. Antique Market.
SEE YOU IN CHICAGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But where do we Park?
In less than 100 hours – very early on Wednesday morning – two cars will pull out on the road – one from Nashville and one from Toronto. Both cars will head towards Chicago, Illinois. Other cars from other places are heading there as we speak. And what happens when we all reach Chicago? Where will we park?
Parking in Chicago is a thing.
At the Homewood Suites, Valet Parking with In & Out privileges is $59 a night. That’s somewhere between the best deal in town and Ouch!!
Next door to the Hotel, at the Grand Plaza parking lot, it’s $45 for 24 hours, with no In & Out.
Then there are crowd-sourced APP’s that you can download – like SpotHero and ParkWhiz.
They will tell you where you can park and for how much. It won’t be at the hotel, and probably nowhere near the hotel, but it will be cheaper.
Cab or Uber it back to the hotel.
Keep Smiling – Use transit
Have a great Convention!
Souvenir Building Collectors’ collections focus on souvenir or miniature buildings. However, many of these small treasures are also utilitarian – banks, bookends, tape measures, ink wells, paper weights, salt and pepper shakers – therefore the SBCSociety has a number of cross-collecting members.
On Saturday, August 26, during the 2017 SBCS Convention at the Homewood Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown, many different varieties of souvenir building will be up for sale through the SWAP MEET or AUCTION or RAFFLE.
These are some of the banks from the Kneisel Collection that will be available in the various venues.
Chicago 2017 – 52 Days and Counting!
I hope you’re as excited as we are about the Convention. Our Canadian members just celebrated Canada Day July 1, and it’s July 4th for most of the rest of us… our apologies to The Netherlands! August 25th will be here before you know it, and we will be in Chicago, the windy city. Ya know, Windy City is not about the breeze coming off Lake Michigan. It’s what New Yorkers thought about the non-stop speaking of the Chicago delegation in NYC who were determined to convince the World’s Fair Committee that they were the right city to celebrate the Columbian Exposition. They didn’t stop talking until they won that honor, earning them the nickname Windy City, and creating the White City in 1893.
Great Wheel, George Ferris, 1893, Chicago
The Rookery – Burnham & Root 1888, LaSalle & Adams St. Chicago
1905 Frank Lloyd Wright Renovation of Rookery Lobby
History of Chicago & Sunday Walking Tour
Chicago native Joan Kane will be at the convention this year. At our Friday night reception Joan will deliver a short talk about the History of Chicago.
On Sunday Joan will lead an early-morning walking tour along Dearborn St. where we will see an architectural history of Chicago, from old to new!
FUN FACT – Grant Park is built on cinders of the 1871 Great Fire of Chicago.
Registration: Early Registration Deadline is July 10!
Fellow SBCS’ers. It’s time to register. In fact, let’s sweeten the pot. If you have your registration and payment in to Katharine by July 10, not only will you skip the late fee, we will enter all of your names into a draw for one of three Early Bird Prizes! Yes… Prizes! We like that.
The Frank Lloyd Wright bus tour is going to be amazing. No other way to describe it. Three hours of FLW – what else could you ask for? To book this private bus tour we had to promise a minimum of 25 bums in seats, so be sure to sign up for a seat on this fabulous FLW adventure.
Saturday’s Swap and Shop
This past week, the Bob Kneisel Collection Committee sent Michael and I a list of all the Kneisel buildings and monuments that are going to be in Chicago for the Swap Meet and the Auction. Yow! We want them all. Be sure you are in the room when these are unleashed. Here are a few examples.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Pizza Night
For all of you who are arriving before Friday, Michael Emrick will be organizing a Thursday Pizza Night. More time to schmooze. Stay tuned for details.
Registration… Registration ….REGISTRATION!
We are looking forward to a flood of registrations this next week or so.
Please fill out your registration form and send it to Katharine. Click here to access the Registration Form
Book your room now: Click here for the Homewood Suites SBCS Member Reservations. Our block of rooms is almost booked up.
We may be able to add a few rooms, but we’d have to do that soon.
Please book as soon as possible to get SBCS’ amazing rate. The Homewood Suites are just 350 feet from the GRAND/STATE STREET Red Line Station and easy connections from the airports and to the famous LOOP.
Chicago River Cruise. Photos courtesy of Chicago Architecture Foundation
Frank Lloyd Wright Tour
Hurtley House
The plans are coming together for the 2017 Convention of the Souvenir Building Collectors Society to be held in Chicago, IL on August 25-26-27. Click here for Mark and Mike’s update letter.
EVENING: Annual MEET & GREET, aka Reception (at convention hotel) and Show & Tell.HELP THE ORGANIZERS PICK A THEME, forward your suggestions to 2017 SBCS Convention Committee by clicking here.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Saturday: August 26:
EARlY AM: Chicago River Cruise – 50+ iconic Chicago buildings on view.
LATE AM: SBCS Business Meeting and Swap Meet (convention hotel). Some of the buildings from Bob Kneisel’s bequest to the Society will be available in the Swap Meet and others in the evening’s auction.
EVENING: Saturday Night Banquet (off-site venue) Raffle, Auction and Merriment!
In 1999 the SBCS convention was in Chicago. We paid $154.00 per night at the convention hotel. In 2017, eighteen years later, we have negotiated a rate at a suites hotel in the shadow of the Wrigley Building, for a mere $174 per night.
Our hotel in Chicago is the newly renovated Homewood Suites by Hilton Chicago Downtown, at 40 East Grand Ave. All rooms are 340 sq. ft. suites with separate living and sleeping areas, two 27-inch LCD flat-screen TVs, a galley kitchen, King Beds, free WIFI, and free hot full breakfast & complimentary evening social Monday through Thursday.
When we book the Convention Hotel we promise to take a fixed number of room nights. When we all stay at the Convention Hotel we maximize the time we have to visit and socialize. This is why it is so important to all stay at the same place. If we don’t meet the promised room nights, SBCS has to pay the difference. So, lets all commit to stay at the Convention Hotel and get the most out of every moment of the short span of time we get to spend with each other every year.
Like NYC, parking in downtown Chicago is not cheap. We are researching some alternatives.
Souvenir Building Collectors Society members can book their hotel rooms starting April 1.
Just a reminder that your key link to updates on SBCS 2017 Convention in Chicago is this SBCS website.
1933 Chicago Worlds Fair Keys (8.5 and 10 Inches in length). Labeled buildings pictured include: Travel and Transport, Hall of Science, Fort Dearborn, Lindberg Beacon, Sears, General Motors, Federal and States Building.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME: Architectural souvenirs from the 17th-19th century are being showcased, courtesy of the Piraneseum Collection, from January 21 – August 13, 2017 in the International Terminal Main Departures Hall of San Francisco International Airport. The following links take you to the SFO exhibition posting, and to an article in Travel and Tour World.
KLM Delftware Miniature Buildings: If you have any of the Delftware Houses in your collection, you will probably enjoy this February 2017 blog post on the KLM website.
Frank Lloyd Wright Retrospectives: There are a number of exhibits and articles regarding the 150th anniversary of FLW’s birth. The International Cryptozoology Museum is planning a mini-exhibit in June 2017. MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, in NYC is mounting an exhibit which will run from June 12 to October 1, 2017.
Models of Historic and Modern Mosques: In its Architecture Gallery, The Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has an extensive model collection of mosques throughout the world
SBCS members from across the land and around the world are packing, planning, and heading to Chicago. By car, van, SUV… by planes small and large, it is the Gathering of the Clan.
SBCS 