As we move through our great adventures with The Move, we are learning a lot about our capabilities, our resources, our dedication – and ourselves.
We want to pause for a moment to let you know that, after a tremendous amount of effort — talking, walking the route, researching and formulating the themes, thinking and rethinking — the Move Task Force is recommending that what was to be the “new historic,” or the Early Skyscraper tour, is just not viable. Many docents spent a great deal of time trying to concoct a tour from the buildings of the era that are located near the Chicago Architecture Center at 111 E. Wacker. The buildings in the area that can be included as walkable are hard to interpret and do not well illustrate a specific style or design principle in a definitive fashion. Potential routes seemed serviceable but, ultimately, uninspiring. And a less-than-stellar tour is not something we would ever offer to the public.
We have discussed this with the Tour Directors, who gave their all, and those docents who were working to be early certifiers and aides as well as CAF Staff. It is with our deep regret that this tour is not going to happen. However, we have other tours that depict the history and evolution of Chicago’s architectural story. We will be ramping up the schedule for those tours, in place of the proposed Early Skyscrapers.
While full details of the revised training schedule have not yet been approved, docents who have been assigned to historic tour training will still be offered alternative options for tour training on these dates.
Docents-If you were planning to participate in one of these training sessions, please keep the dates on your calendar. You will be contacted with specific plans in the very near future.
More updates will be in next week’s Move Update.
No one should see this as a failure: it is a way to make sure that the Move is the best success we can make it and that the new schedule presents to our guests the best tours ever from our new location.
-Your colleagues on the Move Task Force