Chicago III (5/28/2017)

Sunday, May 28, 2017 (continued)

Chicago Tribune Freedom Center (1982 printing plant),
designed by Teng and Associates; there are 10 printing presses and
each has its own foundation due to weight and vibration (KSS)

Two River Place (2002-2004) and River Place on the
Park (2006), both designed by Pappageorge/Haymes,
unique for introducing color on the buildings

Grand Avenue Bridge tender house

Most of the bridges over the Chicago River are fixed trunnion (axle) double-leaf (in two sections as in a drawbridge) bascule bridges that uses a counterweight to balance the vertical lift of the bridge section. Chicago is the movable bridge capital of the world, having more than any other city worldwide.

East Bank Club (1980), a health and social club,
originally did not have windows on the river side
because no one wanted to look at a polluted river

The Kinzie Street Bridge and behind it, the Kinzie Street
Railroad Bridge, are both single leaf bascule bridges

The Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge in the vertical
position, and you can see the huge concrete
counterweight (painted yellow), which here
is located above the bridge

Merchandise Mart (1928-1930), designed by Graham, Anderson,
Probst & White in Art Deco style; when it opened it was the largest
building (floor space) in the world, until surpassed by the Pentagon
in 1943; it is still in the world's top 50 largest buildings

General Growth Building (1956, Mid-20th Century Modern), designed by
Graham, Anderson, Probst & White; take a good look as this building
as there are plans to replace it with a skyscraper

Most of the rear façade of the Civic Opera Building
(1927-1929), designed by Graham, Anderson,
Probst & White, another Art Deco armchair style
that is more like a sofa (KSS)

CME Center (1983-1987, Post-Modern),
designed by Fujikawa Johnson & Associates,
with lots of corner offices!

Camping? (The building is a chilling plant for Enwave Chicago,
a company providing district cooling, that is, air conditioning
for office buildings using pumped chilled water.)

River City (1984-1986, Post-Modern), designed by Bertrand
Goldberg Associates, another project like Marina City,
which is mixed use with its own marina

A wide tour boat (they also offer architectural river tours)

The limestone building is the former Central Post Office (1921,
expanded in 1932), designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White,
which needed to be so large because of the mail order businesses of
Montgomery Ward, and then also Sears; space was left under the building
for a parkway extension, but was later used for a 4-lane highway

The former Post Office has been vacant since 1997 when a move was made to modern facilities across the street.

On the left, Willis Tower, the former Sears Tower
(1970-1974, Mid 20th Century Modern), designed
by Bruce Graham of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill,
built using the innovative bundled tube design;
it was the tallest building in the world from 1973-1998

On the right in the above photo is 311 S Wacker (1988-1990), designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, and serving as a counterpoint to the Willis Tower with octagonal sides and softer colors.

Chicago Board of Trade Building (1929-1930),
designed by Holabird & Root in Art Deco style,
with an art moderne 30' aluminum sculpture of
Ceres, the goddess of Agriculture, on top

200 S Wacker (1979-1981, Post-Modern),
designed by Harry Weese and Associates;
apparently Harry Weese likes triangles

Train tracks line the west side of the South Branch of the Chicago River,
taking coveted river side space; however, the railroad was willing to
sell the airspace above the tracks; now imagine constructing
foundations for skyscrapers that is also a roof for the train tracks;
here we see a commuter train at track level

The center building of two levels is the Boeing
Corporate Headquarters (1988-1990, Post-Modern),
designed by Ralph Johnson of Perkins + Will,
with a roof truss on the shorter building from
which somehow the foundation hangs,
hovering over the train tracks below

Riverside Plaza (1925-1929 as the Chicago Daily News Building),
designed by Holabird & Root, the first private building to incorporate
a public plaza in its design; it is this plaza that is directly over the
train tracks since this is the first instance of renting "air rights"
in order to build over a railroad right-of-way

Central Office Building (1913-1914) as the Reid, Murdoch & Company
Building), designed by George C Nimmons as a grocery warehouse
and offices; one side was shortened due to
the widening of LaSalle Street in 1928-1930

Tribune Tower (1922-1925), designed by
Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells,
in Neo-Gothic style, inspired by the
Button Tower of the cathedral at Rouen, France

Kent's dad related a story of visiting Chicago with Hammy, and being encouraged to attend a burlesque show at the Tribune Tower. When Hammy went to the ladies' room, she encountered one of the strippers who had on the very same dress she was wearing!

NBC Tower (1985-1989, Post-Modern), designed
by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill;
it is sort of Neo-Art Deco in style, inspired by
the Rockefeller Center in New York City

On the left is a triangular shaped building with one
point facing the river, the Swissôtel (1986-1988),
designed by Harry Weese and Associates
(remember that he likes triangles)

The building on the right is 303 E Wacker (1979, Post-Modern), designed by Fujikawa Johnson & Associates. Unfortunately, the building between these two is hard to distinguish. Aqua Tower (2006-2010, Contemporary), designed by Gregory Loewenberg of Loewenberg Architects and Jeanne Gang of Studio/Gang/Architects. The "balconies" project in waves, creating a wonderful aesthetic effect, but woe to the apartment dweller with the shorter balcony!

Aqua Tower

Lake Point Tower (1964-1968, Mid 20th Century
Modern), designed by George Schipporeit and
Alfred Caldwell of Schipporeit-Heinrich Associates,
the only high-rise east of Lake Shore Drive; the
curved sides allows the tower to withstand high winds

Chicago skyline from Lake Michigan, looking at the mouth of the Chicago River

Brynne and Tamiko (KSS)

We paid for a night's lodging for our car, and drove to the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, for the Send Off Celebration of the wedding. Marylee had rented an entire "greystone" that included three flats for the family and the wedding party to use during their stay in Chicago.

Greystone at 3715 N Lakewood Avenue

After a tour, we said our farewells, On the way to dropping Brynne off at the airport, we stopped at a Pequod's Pizza for a highly recommended pan pizza.

Pequod's Pizza

Not as deep as other deep dish pizzas... (KSS)

Ah, this is the life!

Time to head home!

Chicago II (5/28/2017)

Sunday, May 28, 2017
After checking out of the hotel and having a light breakfast from the Corner Bakery Café, we took an architectural tour on the Chicago First Lady river cruise line. With a docent from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, we learned quite a bit about Chicago and its history.

Horses of Honor, each painted by an artist and each honoring
an individual police officer who lost his/her life in the line of duty;
this horse honors Sgt Alane M Stoffregen, is sponsored by
Chicago First Lady Cruises, and was painted by Mimi Zaphiratos 

In 1673, the Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette expedition traveled along the Chicago River, looking for a passage from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. The area was claimed for France, but was ceded to Great Britain after the French and Indian War. It was then ceded to the United States after the American Revolutionary War.
In the 1780s, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable built a farm and trading post near the mouth of the Chicago River. The N Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River is named DuSable Bridge in honor of the "founder" of Chicago.
The steps leading to the Chicago First Lady boat landing were located at N Michigan Avenue and E Wacker Street, on the site of the 1803 Fort Dearborn. The settlement that grew around the fort was organized as the Town of Chicago in 1833, and was incorporated as a city in 1837. As a transportation hub, the city grew rapidly. The Great Chicago Fire in 1871 destroyed most of the city's wooden buildings, leaving a third of the population (100,000 of 300,000) homeless. As Chicago rebuilt, they used more modern constructions of steel and stone, including the world's first skyscraper (at 10 stories) in 1884 (now demolished).

Carbide and Carbon Building (1929), designed by the
Burnham Brothers in Art Deco style, now a
Hard Rock Hotel; noted for real gold leaf accents

Wrigley Building (1919-1925), designed by Charles Beerman, of Graham,
Anderson, Probst & White, in French Renaissance and Spanish Revival
styles, and the clock tower was inspired by the Seville Cathedral's
Giralda Tower in Spain; a skywalk connects two buildings

London Guarantee and Accident Building (1922-1923),
designed by Alfred S Alschuler in Beaux-Arts style
with classical features; in front is the McCormick
Bridgehouse Museum in one of the bridge tender
houses of the DuSable Bridge (1917-1920) designed
by Edward Bennett, also in Beaux-Arts style

Several streets in this area are multi-level; here Wacker Street is on
 three levels, the lower levels meant for commercial and delivery traffic;
they create another challenge for tourist drivers!

 35 E Wackers Dr/Jewelers' Building (1924-1926),
designed by Thielbar and Furgard; and Giaver and
Dinkleberg in Art Deco style with classical
embellishments,  and Kemper Building (1960-1962)
designed by Shaw, Metz and Associates

The Jewelers' Building once had an elevator for autos so that the jewelers could go securely straight to their offices, and it is rumored that during Prohibition, Al Capone ran a speakeasy in the restaurant under the dome.

Marina City (1964-1967, Mid-20th Century Modern),
designed by Bertrand Goldberg Associates as a
mixed use city-within-a-city; each apartment is
shaped like a slice of pie

Marina City, with the lower levels being a parking garage,
and including a marina as well as shops and restaurants

Leo Burnett Building (1989, Post-Modern), designed by
Kevin Roche-John Dinkeloo and Associates; note
vertical steel bars that divide the windows,
referencing "Chicago windows"

"Chicago windows" originated with the First Chicago School of architecture as a way to bring in more light and allow natural ventilation. Generally they had a large center pane of glass flanked by two smaller double-hung sash windows.

77 W Wacker (1992, Post-Modern),
designed by Ricardo Bofill,
with Greek architectural touches

LaSalle Wacker Building (1929-1930), designed by
Andrew N. Rebori of Rebori, Wentworth, Dewey
& McCormick, in Art Deco style

The docent referred to the building as resembling an armchair, which was a response to Chicago ordinances that required the tallest part of the building to be set back from the edge of the property, so that light was not blocked for neighboring buildings.

OneEleven (2005-2014, Contemporary), designed by
Gary Handel of Handel Architects LLP, was actually a
retrofit of an abandoned building project begun in 2005;
the cut-outs in the façade are supposed
to show the flow of the Chicago River

Wells Street Bridge (1922, double leaf bascule) is one of the several
double-deck bridges that cross the Chicago River,
carrying the elevated trains on the upper deck (KSS)

225 W Wacker (1985-1989, Post-Modern), designed by
William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates;
with turrets, a pediment resembling a bridge,
and an urn (at the base of the large expanse of glass
below the "bridge") as a reference to Frank Lloyd Wright

333 Wacker Dr (1979-1983, Post-Modern), designed by
William Pedersen of Perkins + Will,
imitating the curve of the Chicago River

150 North Riverside (2015-2017, Contemporary),
designed by Jim Goettsch of Goettsch Partners,
where the design allows the building to fit in a
restricted space, especially since Chicago decrees
that waterfront development must set aside a
part of the lot for a public park

River Point (2013-2017, Contemporary), designed by
Pickard Chilton, with a 1.5 acre public park and
a continuation of the Riverwalk

Fulton House (1898, converted to a cold storage
warehouse in 1908), designed by Frank Abbott,
and renovated 1979-1981 by Harry Weese and
Associates; since originally there were no windows,
150 windows were punched through during renovation

It appears they are painting the building a brick color.

River Cottages (1990, Post-Modern), designed by Harry Weese
and Associates, are nautically themed townhouses, and
one of the first river side developments to face the river

Erie on the Park (2002), designed by
Lucien Lagrange Architects, is an example of a
building with an exo-skelleton; note the brick
building in front has a water tank on the roof -
once a requirement in fire-savvy Chicago

600 W Chicago (1908, the former Montgomery Ward Catalog Warehouse)
and One River Place (1929, the former Montgomery Ward Administration
Building), both designed by Richard E. Schmidt and Hugh Garden
of Schmidt, Garden and Martin

The former warehouse has elements of
Prairie- style architecture; it is now mixed use

The former administration building had
balconies added during renovation into condos

A statue of The Spirit of Progress tops a
corner tower of the former administration building;
note the W Chicago Avenue Bridge tender house

To be continued.