Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Some Chicago Architecture

We took an architecture tour on the river on Friday night and we had a great guide/docent. He had a lot of interesting history tidbits in addition to the architectural information.
This was an experimental community built on the river -if I remember right it was built in the 1970s - the first phase of a grand plan (and the only phase completed). I love the parking lot for boats:
And this is a small set of very cool townhouses on the river:
I thought we had a lot of bridges in the Twin Cities, but Chicago has an unbelievable number of bridges. Most of them are that meshy metal and they open up for river traffic to pass:

But really there are a ton of skyscrapers. When we flew in to Minneapolis there was a great view of downtown which looked puny by comparison.
And and occasional surprise - low brick with vines:
The Sears Tower (which has a new name now but who cares?) which is the ugly one in the middle:
This is one of my personal favorites:

This is a newly refurbished building, now the Hard Rock Hotel - complete with a gilded phallus on top:
These fountains in Millennium Park cool you off just by looking at them:
On our last night we went to Branch 27 restaurant - it used to be a branch of the public library:
It's very nice and open inside:
And although the American Gothic painting has always been on loan from the Institute when I've been there before, there was a way to see it this time (I didn't get to the museum - no time - but I will go back to look for the painting as well as to see the new Modern Wing):

2 comments:

Ironic said...

This takes me way back. I used to date (ok, almost married) a gal who was from Chi-town. First time I visited, I took that boat tour, and I remember the person doing the narrating was cheesy as all get out, but I also remember how interesting it was.

Fede said...

¡Me gusta Chicago, aunque sólo sea en fotos! Curiosamente, ayer estuve viendo en la televisión estatal un reportaje sobre esta ciudad y pude ver todos estos edificios. ¡Ah, y comprendí qué era "The Bean"!
Besos.