On Wednesday, April 26, 2023, Kathleen Murphy Skolnik spoke at the Jewish Museum of Florida for the 16th World Congress on Art Deco lecture series.

In her lecture, Murphy Skolnik discusses the successes, failures, and current threats in the preservation of Chicago’s Art Deco landmarks.

Some of the buildings she covers include the Michigan Square Building and the Streamline Moderne Esquire Theater, which she describes as preservation failures.

Murphy Skolnik also discusses the current threats to preserving buildings like the Union Station Power House, which opened in 1931 and is located on the South Branch of the Chicago River, as well as the Laramie State Bank, which opened in 1928 in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago’s West Side. This building is known for its polychromatic façade along with Art Deco ornamentation.

Kathleen Murphy Skolnik teaches art and architectural history at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois, and leads seminars on Art Deco design at the Newberry Library, a private research library, also in Chicago.

She is the co-author of The Art Deco Murals of Hildreth Meière and a contributor to the recently published Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America.

From 2008 to 2016, she was the editor of the Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine and currently serves on the Board of the International Hildreth Meière Association and the Advisory Board of the Art Deco Society of New York.

The 16th World Congress on Art Deco was made possible with the support of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City of Miami Beach, Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida, the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies, and the Art Deco Society of the Palm Beaches.