Chicago day 1, the end of a long day

When we left the Tribune Tower the evening was starting to draw in. Our plan was to go to the top of the John Hancock Centre where there is a bar with a view out over the city. The Willis (Sears) Tower has an observation platform which, like the Shard, is expensive. So we figured we could get a couple of  drinks for less than the cost of the Sear's admission if we did the Hancock instead.
We walked north up North Michigan Avenue, passing the  the Allerton Hotel, a brick building which was under construction at the same time as the Tribune Tower (1924). 



When Chicago was razed to the ground by fire in 1871, the only thing left was the Gothic stone-built Chicago Water Tower and Pumping Station (1869 designed by W.W. Boyington). This became a symbol for the renewal of the city and it still stands, although now functioning as a tourist information office. It is rather dwarfed by the buildings around it, especially the Park Tower to it's rear.


We were rather late getting to the John Hancock Centre and all the tables next to the windows were occupied. But still people made way so I could photograph the sun going down over the city.
The black hulk of the Hancock Centre rises 100 storeys over North Michigan Avenue. It was labelled 'Big John' for it's size and presence. The huge X-braces that straddle the exterior stiffen the building against wind forces and the whole structure is supported by exterior braced steel tubes so that the interior is entirely free from columns (a system devised by engineer Fazlur Khan). It was completed in 1970 and designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Half of it's site is occupied by a plaza. Here it is, with a picture of an area of the lobby below.



Once we had got our drink I set about the photography business. The lady's loo at the top of the Hancock also has a large plate glass widow which is good to photograph from. The gents is not so endowed.
Here are some pictures taken looking south towards Lake Michigan and Navy Pier (the one with the wheel) as the sun was going down.




The above is looking north up the lake towards the baseball stadium Wrigley Fields.
The following pictures were all taken looking south over the river as it got gradually darker. In the picture below there are three taller buildings. The tall pale building to the left is the AON Centre. Then Trump Tower is to the right and the Willis Tower to the right again towards the edge of the frame.






When we got outside the Water Tower was lit up and we finally made our way to Navy Pier to take a  last picture of the Chicago skyline across the lake.
Sore of foot we limped back to a bus and then the train, finally making it to Michael's building in the north of the city and the four storey climb up to his apartment clutching our take aways. We slept well that night.



The sources I have used for the these Chicago blogs are 'Pocket Guide to Chicago Architecture' by Judith Paine McBrien, published by W.W.Norton and Co.
Chicago Architecture Information http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info 
The Chicago Architecture Foundation  http://www.architecture.org/about-caf/
DK Eyewitness Guide to Chicago published by DK
Some online pages from the Chicago Tribune and good old Wikipedia 













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ancient Agora of Athens

Image
  After our trip to the seaside we thought we should examine more of the ancient sites of Athens. So we walked to the district of Monasteriki, the very busy touristic area, where behind iron railings lies the Greek Agora. This occupies a large area and was originally a place where the Athenians senate met, as well as holding the market, places for socialising, temples and craftsmen's workshops. We started by walking up the hill to the Temple of Hephaestus which overlooks the Agora. This temple was completed around 430BC and as Hephaestus was the patron god of metal work and craftsmanship it was built on a very fitting site, although it was used as church from the 7th century AD to 1833. We passed workmen tidying as we walked. From the top we got very good views over Athens. Directly under the temple lies the site of the ancient Bouleuterion which was the senate house where political discussion took place and the Metroon where the state archives were kept. The boule was a sort of pa...
Read more

A weekend in the Dingle, a damp drive and exciting lichen

Image
We woke to a drizzle the day after our 'Tom Crean experience'. We had not enlisted for the Tom Crean 19 mile endurance walk, and luckily that was sold out anyway, and given the weather would not have been pleasant by any yardstick. Instead we did what any old codger would do under the circumstances and go for a drive. The Slea Head Drive to be more precise and part of what the Dingle tourist board call the 'Wild Atlantic Way'. Wet and wild that particular Saturday. It is manners to drive clockwise around this circular route as the road is very narrow and cars coming the other way, as a couple did, cause all the traffic to snarl up. We started in Dingle where we stopped briefly by the harbour, before continuing until we shortly came to a museum. It was a private, commercial sort of venture, run by an American and called the Celtic and Prehistory Museum. And it was actually very interesting, containing some animal skeletons and stone axes and other such artefacts. Th...
Read more

Athens by night

Image
  The evening after we had returned from Piraeus we decided to have a walk around the bottom of the Acropolis Hill. The Parthenon and other temples were lit up so it was very scenic. We strolled to the entrance to the Odeon of Atticus, the amphitheatre at the base of the Acropolis. There were a few other people here taking in the atmosphere. We managed to get a view in through the iron gates of the seating area of the amphitheatre. We then walked to the footpath that led up the Hill of the Muses, another hill opposite the Acropolis. It was quite dark up there and a little creepy. At the top is the mausoleum of Philopappus. He was a prince who died in 116 AD and apparently so greatly mourned by his sister and the people of Athens that they built this monument to him. We got some tremendous views over Athens from the top and on coming back down into the town we could see the massive curtain wall around the base of the Acropolis. 
Read more

California 11th November, Monterey and the whales

Image
We left Point Lobos and drove into Monterey, finding a car park near the harbour. The 'front' at Monterey had the usual sea food shacks and tourist frippery as well as the occasional sleepy sea lion. We found the berth where our boat was due to depart for the wale watching trip and had our lunch to the delight of a lame sea gull. The boat came with it's own salty sea dog!. We boarded and got a place at the rear of the boat with good visibility although the weather was still cloudy and overcast, I put on my 200mm f/2.8 lens with the 1.4 converter giving me a total of 340mm reach. Mairi had a kit 28-300mm Sigma lens on her smaller sensor camera so could do a lot better than me. I also noticed that her smaller lens was a lot less liable to shake on the moving boat. The trials of using more professional equipment. On the way out of the harbour we passed a sea otter with a baby on her back and numerous sea lions sitting wherever they could...
Read more