Framedlight

Not far from the university campus sits the  Bahá'í House of Worship. At night this large domed marble edifice glowed like a skinned onion against the sky. The  Bahá'í  faith is an independent world religion that believes in a unified deity encompassing all other faiths. It has 5 million followers and was founded in Persia in the mid 19th century. There are 8 temples around the world and this one is it's North American base. If you are interested this is their website http://www.bahai.org/beliefs/ . The temple itself was built in 1953 and designed by Louis Bourgeois who spent 8 years on the design. It has a steel superstructure with concrete panels incorporating quartz crystal and white cement to create the lacy filigree which forms the exterior. The internal space is a single entity and is very awe inspiring. You are not supposed to take pictures inside, which I respected. The gardens are very beautiful too but not at their best on a February night. ...

We caught the train back to Michael's apartment and picked up the car to drive to the university campus. Michael is nearly at the end of his PhD thesis in history at Northwestern and needed to go in to the department to attend a lecture. Northwestern University was built in Evanston, beautifully placed next to Lake Michigan, around 12 miles north of Chicago. It was founded in 1851 by John Evans and the oldest building still standing is University Hall (1869).  In 1873 the Evanston College for Ladies merged with the university, although Northwestern first admitted women students in 1869. The medical school and the law school are based in Chicago itself. The campus is an airy place with wide roads, trees and green space. Before he went in for his lecture Mike showed us the Alice Millar Chapel, built in 1962 with the most wonderful stained glass windows, designed by Belgium born Benoit Gilsoul. Their colours depict stories and allegories. The outside of the church is very convent...

Day 5 was to be our last full day in Chicago before flying back to Orlando. We checked out of our hotel and made our way back to Michael's area of the city before going with him to North Western university where he needed to be at a lecture in the history department. But we didn't need to be there till the afternoon. The hotel was directly opposite the Carbide and Carbon building. An art deco jewel, clad in green granite and decorated modestly with brass. It is now the home of the Hard Rock Hotel. We dropped in to the Cultural Centre. This was built in 1897 to serve as Chicago's first public library but is now used to host exhibitions and events. There was a vary varied show from students around the city. Another by an artist who had painted the doors of a school in a deprived area, and then a rather strange collection of ladders and ropes that was outside the galleries in a courtyard area. The rooms are enormous and one of the glass domes is by Tiffany, (he h...