A 1989 PBS documentary, "Design Wars | The Battle for Chicago’s New Library", is available on YouTube. The behind-the-scenes documentary explores the competition that took place between five teams (led by Arthur Erickson Architects/VOA Associates; Hammond, Beeby and Babka; Murphy/Jahn; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; and Lohan Associates) each with a very different approach, and which for a few months was the main talk of the city. Ultimately the judges decided on the proposal from Hammond, Beeby and Babka (today HBRA Architects), characterized by some as "safe, noble and traditional" but also by one critic as "a hulking beaux-arts caricature of a civic building, with an ersatz late 19th century street face, and replete with enormous copper and terracotta sculptural elements." Erickson's own proposal — vast, accommodating the elevated train line and featuring a winter garden — nodded undeniably to postmodernism but used the language of monumentality to great effect, especially given the city's power and architectural history.
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