Is Chicago truly the birthplace of the skyscraper? And what makes a building a skyscraper anyway?

Popular Chicago Public Television host Geoffrey Baer will visit the NIU campus next month to discuss the history of Chicago’s skyscrapers.

A multiple Emmy award-winning writer, producer and host who is well known for his masterful storytelling, Baer will deliver his talk at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.

The event, sponsored by the Friends of the NIU Libraries, is free and open to the public.

Baer will give a capsule history of Chicago’s astonishing and rapid rise from a tiny trading post on the American frontier to a teeming metropolis. The Great Fire of 1871 could have finished off the upstart town, he says, but out of the ashes rose the world’s first city of skyscrapers.

As a bonus, Baer will engage the audience in an interactive quiz based on his newest Public TV program, a quiz show about Chicago history.

“The Friends of the NIU Libraries are absolutely thrilled to be sponsoring a talk by Mr. Baer,” said Lynne Thomas, NIU faculty liaison to Friends of the NIU Libraries. “His depth of knowledge about the history of Chicago and its environs is unparalleled, and we hope everyone comes out to the program to experience it first-hand.”

Baer is most familiar to Chicago audiences for his popular feature-length TV specials about Chicago architecture and history, including “Chicago’s Loop: A New Walking Tour,” “Chicago’s Lakefront,” “Chicago by Boat: the New River Tour,” “Biking the Boulevards,” “The Foods of Chicago: A Delicious History” and “Chicago by ‘L’: Touring the Neighborhoods,” as well as six programs covering virtually all of Chicago’s suburban areas.

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