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All in Things to Do in Chicago
Artifacts
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Everybody loves wandering about in an antique store. In Chicago, we have several, but the most notable one is Architectural Artifacts. The proprietors have gathered works from around the world.
Al's Italian Beef
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On the corner of Welles and Ontario in Chicago's River North neighborhood sits Al's Italian Beef, just 4 doors north of the Flamingo Rum Club.
Parasite or Love?
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Two days after the Apple store moved several blocks south on Michigan Avenue to its new riverfront location, I stopped by the old Apple store to see what remained. I was greeted by an all-black wall where a sleek glass storefront once welcomed me, with what was for me an intriguing statement stenciled in white: "We would never leave you."
Venetian Gothic
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The Chicago Athletic Association Building now houses a boutique 241-room hotel, with a ground-floor Shake Shack, the Cherry Circle Room on the hotel's second floor, and Cindy's, a rooftop restaurant and bar, with an outdoor terrace. The interior is pretty snazzy.
Chilling in the Park
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Not much to say about this one. That's the Prudential Building. If you doubt me, read the sign at the top. It was completed in 1955--the first skyscraper built in Chicago following the Great Depression. I am standing in Millennium Park's Lurie Garden.
A Wet Fall Day
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I am standing dead center on the BP Bridge, which connects Chicago's Millennium Park with the newer Maggie Daley Park. The bridge is one of the most frustrating photographic subjects in Chicago. Designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, its stainless steel parapets and hardwood planked floor slithers across Columbus Drive, bringing children and their parents to the two gigantic climbing walls, an ice skating ribbon, and the playground areas that makeup much of Daley Park.
Winter's Arrival
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No snow today. The temperature was well above 32F until sunset. Yet, for me, today marked the start of winter. I was still after that elusive photograph of the new Apple store that overlooks the Chicago River.
Apple of Concord
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Finally, after at least a year and half, Apple's new flagship store opened tonight at 5PM, with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the premises. The hordes were out there, worshipping the glass monolith just as the apes worshipped the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. From the monolith comes knowledge.
Taco Tragedy
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The Cubs will not be repeating this year thanks to a powerful LA Dodger team, but that is not the only tragedy befalling Wrigleyville, Cubs fans, and late night drunks at bar time. News broke in early August that the much beloved Taco Bell at 111 West Addison would be closing, to be replaced with a shiny new 39,755 square foot three-story retail development.
Buckingham Fountain
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This photograph is either a two or four-minute exposure at F32 and ISO 100. I was using the iPad wireless app to trigger the shutter, and the camera appears to have recorded the shutter speed shown on the dial rather than the one I inputed into the application. My camera was fitted with a 10-stop neutral density filter, which explains the silky water and fuzzy clouds.
Air and Water Show
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I spent much of the day at the 59th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show. I take in some of the show every year because it takes place right out my front door, but I am not a fan, particularly from a photographic standpoint.
From the Ace Hotel Chicago
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The photograph was taken from the rooftop bar of the Ace Chicago Boutique Hotel. If I had guests in town, I might suggest staying here. It is a little off the beaten path if the Michigan Avenue, Lake Michigan, and Millennium Park are your destinations, but they are all a relatively quick "L" or cab ride away. One thing is for sure, this neighborhood is now restaurant central.
Reenacting the Picasso Unveiling
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Today, the City's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events held a reenactment of the August 15, 1967 unveiling of the Picasso statue that sits in Daley Plaza. Although a major tourist attraction, as well is should be, Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate has usurped the Picasso's stature with city residents and visitors. Personally, I prefer the Picasso, which includes many classic Picasso motifs folded into its Cor-Ten steel outline and shapes.
Bughouse Square Debates
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It is probably no longer politically correct to refer to an institution for people with mental health issues as a bughouse, but the "Bughouse Square" nickname for Washington Square Park was an attempt to capture some of the craziness that came with the eccentrics and expressive orators who took park in debates and other public forums the park during the early decades of the last century. Bughouse was then the slang for what would later generations would refer to as the looney bin or Cuckoo's Nest.
Washington Square Park
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The 3-acre Washington Square Park sits just south of the Newberry Library. The American Land Development Company donated the land to the City of Chicago in 1842 for a public park. It hoped to make the area more attractive for high-end residential development. While its intentions were good, the Company probably never envisioned that the park would be a center for boisterous vocal debate, attracting what today might be described as left-wingers and Occupy Wall Street types. The resulting racket probably was not the first preference of local residents.
Tiffany Dome
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The photographer takes the Tiffany Dome in the Chicago Cultural Center's Preston Bradley Hall as he or she finds it. The 38-foot in diameter dome has been lit by natural light since its restoration in 2008.
City-County Building
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Pictured is a sculpture that adjourns the City and County Building. Analogous to Certs--Two Mints In One--the Cook County Main Administration building is combined with Chicago's City Hall in an 11-story, Greek-styled building designed by Chicago architectural powerhouse Holabird & Root.
Dubuffet Sculpture
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Helmut Jahn's State of Illinois Building is in a state of disrepair. Chicago Tribune architectural columnist Blair Kamin points to rusted columns, chipped paint, and duct tape holding faded carpets together. There is also the smell of fast food grease wafting through the atrium from the food court on the lower level. All of this mirrors the State of Illinois' budget crisis, which will continue to plague the state despite the band-aid tax increase signed into law ten days ago by Governor Bruce Rauner.
Unfortunately, but appropriately, Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast, which is located at the building's southeast corner, is in similar disrepair. The 10-ton sculpture has faded in parts from white to cigarette-finger yellow. It appears to be chipped, with parts of it covered in graffiti, which serves as another example of why we can't have nice things.
Playing on the Picasso
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Ah, yes, we all remember being a kid and partaking in the joys of summer. No school, so head down to the Daley Plaza, and then use the Picasso statue as a slide.