chicago, 2008
America's Second City (so named because it is the third-largest city in the country) has always been a missing link to me - I've been aware of it, but have never got around to visiting it over the years.
That all changed in June, when Andrea and I visited our friends Padmini and Apurva, who live in the north of the city. We crashed with them and toured the town, taking in some of the country's best architecture, as Chicago is home to some of the earliest skyscrapers and most adventurous experiments in design, dating back to the late nineteenth century.
The Sears Tower
First thing's first. This is the Sears Tower, the tallest building in town, and also the tallest in the country. It was completed in 1973, and we made it our first stop. The skyscraper is built of nine separate, connected towers, held up at differing heights like rods in tic-tac-toe formation, held in one's hand. (The original analogy behind the structure was nine cigarettes.)
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Only two of the structures hit the top height of 1,730, feet, and this is Andrea on the skydeck on the 103rd floor.
It has a spectacular view. This is looking south along the south branch of the Chicago River ...
... and along Lake Michigan toward Indiana.
The northerly view is better, as you get more of Chicago's impressive towers.
This one in particular is the John Hancock Center on the north side of the city. It has some of the highest condominiums
in the world.
Looking up Lake Michigan. To the right of the Hancock Center you can see a rather shiny new building under construction.
That's the Trump Tower.
View north from Sears Tower.
By some reckoning the Sears Tower is still the world's tallest building. In 1998 it was technically exceeded by the Petronas Towers in
Malaysia, however that is only because the Grand Poobahs of tall buildings don't count the radio towers as part of the Sears Tower's height (they are not "architectural" components).
If you decided to count them, the Sears Tower would be taller than the decorative spires on both the Petronas Towers and the world's current tallest building,
Taipei 101. This has annoyed Chicagoans for years, but it will soon be a moot point because everything's shorter than
Burj Dubai, which will become the worlds tallest when it is occupied in 2009, and its height is 150% that of the Sears Tower.
The river, and other notable Chicago buildings
This is the south branch of the Chicago River. The river is probably unique in the world in that it is one of the few urban waterways to have been artificially reversed. In the city's early days the
Chicago River flowed into Lake Michigan, however cholera epidemics in the nineteenth century led to the novel idea of preventing sewage from collecting in the lake by using the riverway to drain it, rather than to
empty into it. The river now flows inland. One unforeseen result is that neighboring cities sued Chicago for taking more than their fair share of water, and won.
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The Washington Street Bridge near the Civic Opera House.
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This is the Chicago River from Michigan Avenue Bridge. At this point it's a single river, though it branches north and south further inland.
Along Wacker Drive (a street that, confusingly, is made up of streets on multiple street levels that run in multiple directions) are a few neat buildings. The narrow 333 North Michigan Avenue was
an inspiration for Rockefeller Center in New York. The next building is the London Guarantee and Accident Building, and to the far right is Mather Tower.
More buildings along Wacker Drive.
 from boat on Chicago River.jpg "Mather Tower and 35 East Wacker (Jeweler's Building) from boat on Chicago River")
That's the Mather Tower again on the left. The stately building on the right is 35 East Wacker, also called the Jeweler's Building.
The Jeweler's Building was started in 1924 as an office building for the city's Jewelers. To prevent the diamond merchants from being mugged in transit, the building was
equipped with a car-sized elevator. The jewelers would simply drive into the elevator and ascend to the desired floor, car and all.
Looking straight up the new Trump Tower from a boat on the Chicago River.
One of the nicest brick buildings along the river, this is the Reid, Murdoch & Co. Building.
Where the river splits there is a curved street, and 333 Wacker Drive was built to fit it, as well as to mimic the green color of the river with its tinted glass.
The Chicago Sun Times building.
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Here's a closer view of the John Hancock Center along the Miracle Mile, a section of Michigan Avenue that runs north from the Loop, or city center. It's very industrial, with a lot of exposed structure.
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I rather liked the AT&T Corporate Center on South Franklin Street, which we found near the Sears Tower ...
... it has lots of nifty spires.
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One thing that's unique about Chicago is that for some reason it still has many of its water towers. You still see these in New York as well, and here and there in Boston. But Chicago has more than its share.
These are the famous Marina City buildings, built in (wait for it) the 1960s. But despite their 60ishness, they're actually rather charming.
I never realized it before, but the lowest levels of the buildings are a spiralling parking garage for residents.
Here they are from the river, with the new Trump Tower at right.
Another view of the shiny Trump Tower.
Two of the best buildings in the city are the Wrigley and Tribune buildings, which sit across from each other on Michigan Avenue next to the river. They mark the start of Michigan Avenue's
Magnificent Mile.
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The Tribune Tower was built for the Chicago Tribune, the design determined by a contest. The winner decided to go gothic.
The Wrigley Building across the street was built for William Wrigley Jr.'s chewing gum company.
It is coated in white glazed terra-cotta in a variety of shades designed to look brighter toward the top of the building, and for preservation reasons they must be periodically
washed by hand.
A better look at that terra-cotta ...
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Michigan Avenue from the Loop, or center of town.
This is the Carbide and Carbon Building, an art deco building with a wonderful gold spire.
It's coated with black granite and green terra cotta.
This is one of the oldest buildings in the city, the Old Water Tower, which was part of the city water works before the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost everything else in the area.
Chicago is also filled to the brim with massive fire escapes, like this one in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. I saw some far taller than this.
Lake Point Tower is a residential tower near the Navy Pier.
I found its shape fun to photograph. It's very close to the site of the future tallest building in North America, the Chicago Spire, which will be taller than the Sears Tower and Toronto's CN Tower,
though shorter than a number of buildings overseas.
Traffic and buildings from a beach walkway near Lincoln Park.
The "L" ... or "El"
I'm always interested in transit systems, and Chicago's is certainly unique. Like many other cities it added an elevated train system in the nineteenth century, but unlike
many other cities it never remove it. The "El" or "L" stretches all over town.
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This part of the El makes up the Loop, which is a circle of rail lines that encloses the city center. It is named after an old streetcar system that followed roughly the same route,
though the El is also surprisingly old, with parts dating to the 1880s.
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On North Wabash Avenue the elevated stations have a great view of the new Trump Tower.
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The system runs far into outer reaches of the city, elevated tracks stretching for miles.
Bits of the system are underground, including stations like Dearborn Street.
I was surprised that some of the underground stations downtown are are all built in one long row, with continuous platforms that stretch for blocks. Here you can see that Monroe Station's platform
continues far into the distance and merges with the platform of the next Blue Line station.
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Breakfast and the Arts
One of the more popular places to get breakfast in downtown Chicago is Lou Mitchell's Restaurant. They're quite good.
Of course, there's a line. Here's Andrea, Padmini and Apurva waiting in it.
This is Padmini and Andrea on Padmini and Apurva's apartment building, overlooking downtown Chicago in the far distance.
While walking around I met a BlackBerry mascot, and when I showed him (it?) that I had a BlackBerry we decided to pose together.
For some reason the Art Institute of Chicago has trains running underneath it. The strange tube above is part of new construction and looks like a method of moving liquid concrete,
but is actually going to be a pedestrian bridge.
If you've ever seen the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off you'll recognize A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.
It was actually one of the best things we saw in the museum. There was other good stuff, but some of the best bits of the museum were undergoing renovations, and therefore closed.
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Robie House in the South Side
I've seen one or two Frank Lloyd Wright buildings over the years, but I've never had an opportunity to tour one (except the Guggenheim in New York). I've always wanted to see one of his
residential works, so Apurva, Padmini and Andrea and I drove down to the South Side, where we visited Robie House.
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Recently restored on the outside, the details of Robie House are fantastic. Unfortunately much of the inside is still being restored.
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Robie House was one of the first houses anywhere to have a garage (now a gift shop), as the person who commissioned it dabbled in automobiles. They were relatively new in 1908 when the house was built.
The house is a "prairie style" structure, emphasizing long horizontal lines.
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I snapped this photo of a nearby church to show off my circular polarizing filter, which makes the sky extra blue. But as an interesting aside, a church down the street that sits next
door to Robie House owned the Wright-designed house for some time, and even tried to demolish it. This was after the house had gone through many years of neglect and brain-dead interior alterations,
(as well as after some serious weather damage). Fortunately a protest rose to save the house, and it included Frank Lloyd Wright himself.
Heller House, another of his works, is slightly older and just up the street. Andrea actually liked this better. It has more of a classical look.
Beaches
Chicago has embraced its proximity to Lake Michigan by making it easy to get to the beach. Seeing the well-exploited connections between the urban areas and the shore really
makes me wish Boston were so beachy.
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Montrose Dog Beach is one of the more interesting ones to visit. If you like dogs. Either way it's never boring.
Apurva, Padmini and Andrea relax on Montrose Dog Beach.
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Montrose Dog Beach.
Padmini reflecting on Montrose Dog Beach.
Andrea on Montrose Dog Beach.
Lake shore.
Lake shore.
The Navy Pier
The Navy Pier is a major tourist site on the harbor, right at the mouth of the Chicago River.
It's right past the bronze statue of Dr. Bob Hartley (Bob Newhart).
There are great views of Chicago from the Navy Pier.
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Apurva, Padmini and Andrea at the Navy Pier, tourist traps of various kinds in the far distance.
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The Harbor Lighthouse used to be at the end of the Navy Pier, but was moved out to make way for tourist attractions, like a grand ballroom.
Parks and other Outdoorsy Places
A view of downtown from a park called Lincoln Park in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Northwest of town we visited Garfield Park and its conservatory. The conservatory is one of the best around.
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I was particularly impressed by the Fern Room.
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The goldfish in the pond in one of the temperate rooms was as curious about us as we were about him and his friends.
That person with the umbrella is Andrea, and that big reflective orb behind her is The Bean, an artwork in Millennium Park.
Our reflections in The Bean.
Millennium Park has rather nice gardens that must be nice on a sunny day.
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South of Millennium Park and the Art Institute is the famous Buckingham Fountain, well known by TV watchers as the fountain at the beginning of Married ... With Children.
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Andrea at Buckingham Fountain.
