Playboy Building Construction 919 North Michigan Avenue
Identifier
F.2010-02-0263
Abstract
Unedited construction footage of the Playboy Office Building in the Palmolive Building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue. Includes scenes of architects and engineers on-site, architect Ron Dirsmith giving a brief tour and ends with aerials of Chicago shot from the construction site.
Description
Hugh Hefner hired The Dirsmith Group out of Highland Park, Illinois to design the corporate Playboy offices in downtown Chicago. By 1971, they had completed about nine floors of corporate offices in the old Palmolive Building. The Dirsmith Group is an architecture, landscape, and engineering firm headed by Ron and Suzanne Dirsmith, who also with Hefner to design and construct the infamous grotto and gardens at Hefner's Playboy West Mansion.
At the time of construction filmmaker Rhodes Patterson was working for Container Corporation of America on a special commission from Walter Paepcke, founder and CEO of CCA, to create a series of documentary films on the creative individual in contemporary society. The footage shot was to be part of a series entitled "Great Ideas of Western Man". This was an outgrowth of Hutchins' and Adlers' "Great Books of the Western World" series of 54 volumes (now 60) originally published by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1952. Books that were chosen had to be relevant to contemporary societal issues, important in their historical context to reward re-reading, and be a continuing conversation about great ideas.
Rhodes Patterson and the Paepckes decided to include Suzanne's and Ron's work in their "Great Ideas of Western Man" film series. Rhodes met Suzanne and Ron when they had returned from their 2 year odyssey as Fellow in Architecture at the American Academy in Rome. They had just designed and built the famed Bubble House with Eldon Danhausen, sculptor, which became their first design studio at 1418 N. LaSalle Street. Rhodes began filming the Dirsmiths' design and construction of the highly sculptural Playboy corporate offices in the venerable Palmolive Building on North Michigan Avenue and the North Shore Unitarian Church in Deerfield, Illinois. During that same period Rhodes flew out with them on many occasions to film the construction of Hugh Hefner's famed Grotto, Ponds and Pool environments they had designed and were building for his Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills California for the same film series.
Run Time
5 min 38 sec
Format
16mm
Extent
200 feet
Color
Color
Sound
Silent
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Reversal Positives
Form
Subject
Related Collections
Related Places
Main Credits
Patterson, Rhodes (is filmmaker)
Participants And Performers
Dirsmith, Ron (is participant)
Do you know more about this item?
If you have more information about this item please contact us at info@chicagofilmarchives.com.
