$22.00 (includes US shipping)


Lost Buildings
For this pledge drive ...


Ira Glass and cartoonist Chris Ware decided to co-report a story together. Ira does the sound. Chris does hundreds of drawings. The result is a 22-minute story, with sound and images, now on DVD for the first time.

Tim looks @ buildingsThis story has never been on the radio. It was presented in pieces – as it was completed – on This American Life's May 2003 "Lost in America" tour, and at Royce Hall in Los Angeles. It's the true story of a boy named Tim Samuelson, who became obsessed with old buildings, especially the buildings of Louis Sullivan in Chicago, during the 1960's and 70's when they were being torn down.

At one point, hearing that a favorite building at Clark and Adams is being demolished, a thirteen-year-old Tim demands to meet with the architect who's designing the glass-and-steel building that'll take its place: Mies van der Rohe, one of the most famous architects in the world. Tim finds van der Rohe's office. The legendary architect meets with the teenager.

Much more happens. It's a very sad story, drawn with beautiful pictures.

Audiences who saw the work presented onstage saw huge projections of Chris Ware's drawings. The cartoon buildings were tall as buildings.


To accompany the DVD, Chris has designed a 96-page book, full of never-before-published photographs of Louis Sullivan buildings, in their glory and in various states of demolition. Also, there are DVD extras: audio outtakes, a look at Chris's pencil sketches, a high-resolution version of the movie that plays on PCs and Macs. 


As he worked on this, Chris said he wanted it to be the most beautiful thank you gift public radio has ever offered listeners. The whole package is this gorgeous little book, filled with photos, with the DVD tucked inside.







Garrick Theatre

Garrick's demolition

The DVD includes a 96-page booklet
of photographs of Louis Sullivan buildings,
many of which have never
been published.

For lucky folks with fast connections on cable modems or DSL

For the slower amongst us, those chugging along with modems and the like

(If you're on a Windows machine, you may need Quicktime to view the preview. Download Quicktime here.)

Read an article on the making of this DVD.