Inspirational Sunday - Architecture

Last night my husband and I had a dinner dance to attend. It was held at this exclusive place called Medinah Country Club. The dinner dance was so-so and food so-so. But the building was amazing and is the focus of today's Inspirational Sunday.

The main building was built in 1928 and is an amazing blend of 60,000 square feet with classic lines of a Byzantine-style, Oriental, Louis XIV and Italian architectural aspects which are actually characteristic of many Masonic structures. It was formed 3 years earlier by the Chicago Chapter of Shriners and originally named Medina for the holy city of Islam in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The place is actually famous for its 3 golf courses and originally had several bunkers built in the shape of a camel. The original owners wanted the club to reflect the history in everything from its name to its architecture. Designer Richard Schmid spent 2 years traveling the Middle East and Europe in search of inspiration. The result is a clubhouse that supposedly looks like a smaller version of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The brown- and orange-brick building is three stories high and 104,000 square feet, with towers on the left and right sides. There used to be a minaret, too, but the top was knocked off by lightning and never restored.

The centerpiece of the building is the 60-foot rotunda. While the ceiling looks like a mosaic of cream, blue, orange, black and red tiles, it's actually hand-painted. The walls of the rotunda also are hand-painted, giving them a Byzantine flavor.

So you might get by now that the dinner dance nor the food didn't impress me. The clubhouse did. I love being surrounded by history. I loved just walking around and being magically pulled into the mystical and spiritual feelings that the different areas made me feel. I am always amazed that a place will do that.

Most of us associate certain emotions, energy levels, and even mental states with the various spaces in which we spend our lives. This is why for centuries, architects have recognized that the buildings in which we live, learn, work, and worship influence how we feel and act, setting the stage for quiet reflection, invigorating interaction, or inspiration.

The Medinah Country Club Clubhouse did that to me. It placed me in the past and I loved how the 4 different blends of architecture drew me into each and how the passion and spiritual feelings of each style came to life.

Here are some of the pictures I took:
This is a view of the entrance in the main rotundo:

This is another view of that entrance in the main rotundo:

This is looking up at the rotundo ceiling:

This is a picture of the ballroom we were in: