Coming Events

Philadelphians will probably have to wait years to see the restoration of the Boyd Theater on Chestnut Street now that Live Nation has put down its hammers. So, in the meantime, they can keep their spirits up by visiting a theater that was successfully brought back to life. Friends of the Boyd is organizing a Dec. 2 field trip to Hershey's refurbished, Golden Age movie palace, which was designed in 1933 in a Venetian style. The bus trip, which includes a tour and lunch, costs $75. See details here.

The Woodmere Art Museum has inaugurated an interesting series of "dialogues" on decorative arts. Next up, on Nov. 15, historian George Thomas discusses 12 important Philadelphia landmarks. He'll be followed on Nov. 29 by Susan Glassman, director of the remarkable, but little known, Wagner Free Institute of Science. She'll talk about the need to preserve entire neighborhoods, not just buildings. The series culminates Dec. 4, when Frank Furness biographer Michael J. Lewis gives a talk with this intriguing title: From Furness to the Fountainhead: Ego and Architecture in Philadelphia.

The last bit of news is actually a past event. Thanks to the huge success of Nathaniel Kahn's film, My Architect, in America and Europe, the documentary just had its official release in Estonia, where architect Louis I. Kahn was born. The Estonians went all out for the September premier, staging a series of events it called "Kahn Days." As part of the festivities, Kahn's daughter, Alex Tyng - a painter and daughter of architect Anne Tyng - unveiled a portrait that will be hung in the Kuressaare Library on the Island of Saaremaa, Kahn's childhood home. Here's Alex (left) with the mayor, Urve Tiidus, and said portrait.