Keeping the Past Present
Virtual Exhibits for Access and Preservation
This project preserves and tells the story of the Town’s and region’s history. It builds on The Depot’s commitment of “Keeping the past present”.
Gertrude Lempp Kerbis (1926 – June 14, 2016)
Long-span structures and custom-designed manufactured components are characteristic of Kerbis’ work. She particularly liked developing structures that would allow for column-free, open plans, creating interior spaces full of possibility. Some of her most successful implementations of this modern style include Mitchell Hall and the Seven Continents Restaurant. Kerbis intentionally focused on structure and chose not to be concerned with furniture or finishes in order to establish herself as a woman architect, not an interior designer.
An American modernist architect, Kerbis studied under and worked for several significant modernists of her day, including Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Carl Koch. Kerbis worked at Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill and C.F. Murphy Associates before establishing her own firm, Lempp Kerbis, in Chicago 1967.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Kerbis
She played a leading role in designing several major milestones in the development of American modernism. Her projects including the Lustron house, the US Air Force Academy, and the O'Hare International Airport rotunda. She was one of the most famous female architects in the country. She founded the Chicago Women in Architecture in 1973.
