August 20, 1899 – The Chicago Daily
Tribune reports on a controversy surrounding United States government buildings
at the upcoming Paris exposition. The
man in charge of settling the kerfuffle is Chicagoan Ferdinand W. Peck, who
must somehow come to a decision regarding the huge issue of whether the letter
“V” or “U” will be used on American buildings at the exposition. Those who argue against substituting the “V”
in words that normally would use “U” say that the substitution “is an
unwarranted bowing of the knee to the French, an effort unduly to honor words
already borrowed from them and a pledge that the United State by and by will
make their entire language its own.” [Chicago
Daily Tribune, August 20, 1899] Peck is the one man most responsible for
seeing the great Auditorium Theater built a decade earlier, and that building
on Congress Street and Michigan Avenue uses “V” in place of “U” in its
nameplate. One of the architects of the
Auditorium, Louis Sullivan, says, “The letter “V’ has always been considered
more artistic than the letter “U” … the letter is ugly, totally too heavy in
the lower portion, and made of no artistic lines. The “V” is copied from the old Roman and may
be found in practically every inscription designed by an artist or an
architect.” In Rome the Latin language
of antiquity had no “U,” so one could speculate that the use of the “V” in neo-classical
design enhances the effect of the design style.
One could also ask a stone carver which letter he or she would prefer to
carve and be fairly accurate in predicting the response.
August 20, 1980 – Things become heated at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse on Dearborn Street as Judge Marvin Aspen sends 14 sweaty jurors downstairs to the offices of the General Services Administration to complain about conditions in the “sweltering courtroom.” “Maybe they’ll listen to you,” the judge says. “They certainly ought to, because you’re paying their salary.” The Chicago Tribune reports that the assistant building engineer, Michael O’Connell, tells the jurors, “Don’t expect it any lower than 80,” as he explains President Carter’s energy guidelines, which call for the cooling of public buildings to no less than 80 degrees. The real problem, though, seems to be with the engineering of the building. According to the Tribune, “In recent years, some Dirksen Building courtrooms have been so hot or so cold that a number of judges have said they cannot conduct business and have threatened to cite the GSA for contempt of court for obstruction of justice.” [Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1980]
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