Chicago's Neighborhoods: Design and Diversity

Produced for public television, this admirable documentary (the final installment in the Skyline: Chicago series; see reviews of Michigan Avenue: From Museums to the Miracle Mile [VL­-1/95] and City in a Garden: Parks and Plans [VL-1/97]) offers viewers a close-up look at a number of important buildings in Chicago, as well as an ethnographic portrait of various Chicago neighborhoods seen through a historical lens. With the help of some excellent commentators, the filmmakers offer insight into the grid system that makes up Chicago and its neighborhoods, and traces the migration of ethnic groups, who have concentrated in certain parts of Chicago, transforming their environments in the process, and then moved to other parts of the greater city (with their old neighborhoods then being colonized, so to speak, by new ethnic groups). A very smartly done portrait of a terrific city, the people who have settled there, and the architectural landscape they've created, this first-rate slice of urban history is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Van Vleck)