I'm sure there are many things to appreciate about Chicago, but I fell for the place it as soon as I saw the art deco buildings. We went back on Tuesday to do this tour, but unfortunately with a different docent. To be fair this guy had a tough act to follow, but he just didn't quite make the grade for me. However, what he lacked in dignity, knowledge and common sense (dragging us across streets against the lights and dodging traffic, I mean really!), he nearly made up for with enthusiasm. We took a couple of unplanned, unrelated detours because of this and I'll forgive it only because we did see wonderful buildings.
This guy dated the Art Deco period in the US as only lasting from about 1925 to 1937. This led me to wonder about the difference in this style and the earlier Art Nouveau period from the turn of that century. From research just now, I gather the earlier period was more 'flowery' whereas the later movement was more 'sleek'. This blog has an excellent collection of pictures showing the difference (and oh, no! she's found someplace that sells art deco furniture online...I dare not even look).
Our docent repeatedly pointed out that art deco design aimed for elegance, opulence and sophistication. Hallmarks of art deco buildings were the very ornate portals, grand post boxes -- usually with eagles on them -- and the use of Egyptian designs.
It must be strange to work in a building where people come in several times a day and take hundreds of pictures. In one building the security guards wouldn't allow photos at all. As it was, I took more photos than you want to know about, so I can't be too upset about those restrictions. Besides which, there is a ton of information online about most of these buildings.
I've really struggled with choosing what to show you -- there is so much! In the end, I've decided just to give you a taster of some of my favourites and give you the addresses to look up other websites if you are interested in seeing more. (NB: the pictures don't necessarily correspond with the buildings listed below).
Chicago Board of Trade
135 LaSalle
33 LaSalle
105 LaSalle
The Reliance Building (not Art Deco)
The Pittsfield Building
The Rookery
Chicago Cultural Center - formerly the public library! (not Art Deco)
The Carbide and Carbon Building (currently Hard Rock Hotel)
One LaSalle
The docent was pretty irate about this last address. Apparently building owners are required to have the facades tested to make sure they are secure. However, as long as there is scaffolding up to protect pedestrians, they aren't required to undertake the repairs; this facade has apparently been in place for over a decade, which he found scandalous.
I had it in my head that we flew out of Chicago on the evening of Tuesday the 14th, but I wasn't keen to be driving to Chicago on that very day, so I planned for us to spend the night, if not more, of Monday in Chicago. That would leave us most of Tuesday to look around. I had no doubt there was a ton to see, but didn't come up with specific ideas until we were about to head that direction. I found a bus tour of the city centre similar to the one we did in Barcelona the year we did the marathon there, where you could hop on and off at any of the stops.
However, when we got there the next day, it turned out that (a) it wasn't obvious where to get on the bus and (b) they wanted $30 each for the ride. When we grudgingly headed to buy tickets Bill discovered a much better deal, a 2-hour walking tour was only $15 each. I liked that idea much better: save money and burn a few of the 16 million calories I'd consumed in the past 10 days, not to mention have a better crack at taking pictures. Unfortunately, the only tour that was on offer that afternoon was about modern skyscrapers, but we went for it anyhow.
Our docent was a former teacher with a great lecturing style: "There will be a test! I will ask you this later: What are three hallmarks of the older style of architecture?"
[Old buildings usually have 3 tiers (base, shaft & cap); they are built of old materials (concrete, marble, etc); they have a lot of ornamentation added to the structure and -- for a bonus point -- they have 'mass' or are 'massive', ie taking up solid space, largely because of the materials used.]
Hallmarks of modern architecture include use of new materials (steel and glass); not much ornamentation at all; the quality of having 'volume' rather than 'mass'. The latter is a function of the street level generally being transparent, allowing you to see completely through the ground floor, and thereby giving the sense that the glass encapsulates volume rather than being a solid mass.
I wasn't taking any notes and I don't like modern buildings much, so full marks to her as a lecturer: she grabbed my attention and made me appreciate something new. I do love good teachers.
Post-modern buildings are built from modern materials, but echo the older style (which is why they are sometimes called Echo Deco) and sometimes 'give a nod' (she liked that phrase) to existing structures, imitating their lines. I learned a few of the rules architects have to follow when designing skyscrapers (particularly taking into account that Chicago is The Windy City) and that if one chooses the wrong cladding (ie, marble which doesn't handle extremes of temperature very well) for your skyscraper, bits fall off and billions have to be spent to re-clad the building in granite.
She referred often to Mies van der Rohe (never heard of him before) and showed us loads of buildings, most of which I don't even now recall. Her, I will remember! Federal Square:
Trump building (cool ice blue):
190 LaSalle (anonymous office building c 1985) - an Echo Deco
Reflecting building I can't find any reference to, but one of my favourites of the modern buildings because of the reflected shapes.
If you like architecture, I found this website that shows you around a lot of big cities around the world. If you want to look around Chicago, Google has a million websites -- over 15 million, actually.
This is the Chase Tower with its Chagall mosaic below. I remembered this building because it has a McDonalds (ie public toilet) and it made me rather ill to watch the workers on the scaffolds.
Mind, I've only heard of Chagall because of the Julia Roberts / Hugh Grant movie, Notting Hill...
This was another building that made my stomach ache, though Bill thought it was brilliant. They had an umpteen-story building to start with but decided they needed more space, so they built at least 19 (I counted) more on top. I don't usually mind heights, but there is nothing about this building I like, not the top part, not the empty bit in the middle, not being in the bottom part whilst the top is being constructed...No siree.
I sort of kept my distance just in case anything happened to go wrong whilst we were there...
Our first morning in the US we were of course still on Greenwich Mean Time and therefore awoke quite early; so, we went for a walk in the park across the road.
There were several people out walking their dogs and I stopped to ask a woman how to get to the lake, which was near by (that's Lake Michigan). This annoyed Bill a bit. When I asked why he thought it was cheating to ask directions, he replied that he just preferred to wander and find things out, so I didn't tell him what the woman said and let him get on with wandering. This was particularly fun as we began to hear lions and elephant sounds and he was looking around in amazement. I knew we were nearing a zoo, but he had to see the sign to understand what he was hearing.
One couldn't help admiring the impressive skyline. I've always thought of Chicago as being a dirty, crowded, ugly place full of hard, ugly people; no doubt there are places in the city which would match that description. However, my first visit to Chicago was full of very pleasant surprises.
We did find the lake and of all things, it had a beach. I saw Lake Erie sometime back in the 80s when visiting family who lived in Cleveland, Ohio, but where I saw it wasn't a beach but a park and a concrete wall. Lincoln Park's beach was fabulous with paths full of cyclists,
runners and dog walkers. I was well impressed with the facilities for exercise, which included drinking fountains (I think they call them 'bubblers' up north) and public toilets.
A little bizarrely, there were also people practicing tug of war and
doing tai chi with not much on.
It was only about an hour before our flight was due to take off when I realized what I’d forgotten: my driving license. This meant that I wouldn’t be doing any driving of the rental car. What worried me more was that Bill only had the card portion of his license, the paper portion apparently having gone missing. (In the UK there are two parts to a driving licence, but one is not expected to carry their license around all the time, like in the US). Only recently has there been a photograph on the card and DLs are not used for identification very much, as so many people don’t drive over here.
I spent the flight over trying to figure out strategies in case we couldn’t get the rental car at the airport. I came up with four possibilities, none very promising. As it turned out, even though the paper work specified needing both parts of the license, the girl at the desk didn’t know about UK driving licenses and so Bill walked away with the car keys and I felt a huge load lift! Personally, I think it was his snazzy outfit that clinched the deal.
They couldn’t refund the money the 2nd driver, but they let Bill chose an upgraded car and he got a PT Cruiser, something he’s drooled over a long time. We weren’t far out of the car park before he decided this would get that out of his system, particularly ours had no cruise control; how quickly we are spoiled!
The place Bill had us staying in Chicago, the Belden Stratford Hotel,
was fabulous. It was a one bedroom apartment
with views of Lincoln Park (Chicago, like Oklahoma City, has a Lincoln Park Zoo!),
a fully outfitted kitchen and lovely décor. We were ready to move there – it was 'only' $1,000 a month…
