Page 2 of 6
Chicago, Illinois
And as I'm waiting on your doorstep now I notice patterns in the paint, I'm wondering how the glass will hit when I, as I turn and go in shame
It's hard to imagine a Frank Lloyd Wright house that's more perfect in a pure Frank Lloyd Wright kind of way than the Robie House (take that, Fallingwater). It's practically the definition of Prairie Style Architecture, arguably the only real innovative true American architectural style, from a time when architectural styles were all the rage.
A few things to look at and/or appreciate from this photo. First notice the horizontality of the design. (horizontal = prairie). Even the bricks are super thin Roman Bricks, and the vertical joints are narrow and brick colored while the horizontal joints jump out at you. Next notice the planter/urn out front (nature = prairie). And it's hard to miss that massive cantilevered roof- it may be all brick on the outside but deep inside that roof is all steel.
I took a special (and by special I mean slightly more expensive) tour of the Robie House that allowed interior photography, which explains this picture. This is the view in the main second floor living room, looking through the custom art glass and right out underneath that massive cantilevered roof.
A year ago, Continental (my preferred airline) was a part of SkyTeam, an airline alliance that included Delta/Northwest and Air France/KLM. Last fall they switched to Star Alliance, joining up with United, US Air, Air Canada and Lufthansa, among others. Then Continental took things one step further and decided to merge with United, a merger that will take forever to get approved and then even more time to really go into effect, but a merger that will in all likelihood change my flying life. My much coveted Platinum Elite status (guaranteed for 2010 and almost already reached for 2011) may not be in jeopardy but it is still in real danger of being at least redefined. And as often as I now go through Houston, I'm imaging even more trips through Denver and Chicago O'Hare, since there are only so many places any airline can really fly direct from an already over burdened Newark.
Even though Chicago O'Hare (like Newark) is notorious for delays, at least I'll be killing time or running to make a connection through a great looking building. Helmut Jahn's United Terminal One is a great building that holds up over time. This photo shows the often copied but never beaten underground tunnel that connects the B and C Concourses, with a neon sculpture overhead, glowing undulating walls on the side and perfectly appropriate late 1980s new age music playing- taken together they make you forget you only have 5 minutes to make your connection and they make you wish, as always, that you had once again just a little more time.
Architect Bertrand Goldberg was really ahead if his time. His most famous building- Marina City- was conceived as a mixed use complex, a city within a city some 30 or 40 years before everybody started doing it. The buildings are credited as one of the first post WW2 large scale center city residential projects anywhere, realizing early on that people not only might want to live downtown but that downtown might be better if people were around after business hours.
The buildings themselves are twins, identical 65 story corncobs with an awfully fun looking fifteen or twenty story high parking deck. And the Marina City name is more than just a name, the building drops all the way down to the Chicago River where you have a chance to actually dock your boat, only a quick elevator ride from home.
Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture is just infinitely fun, one of those things you need to see and walk around and get lost in, a great experience and one that's impossible not to love. One of these pictures is a self portrait, I'm the one that looks like me, and the other guy that looks like me, and the other other guy that looks like me. Once you get underneath (where this picture was taken) reflections of reflections of reflections start taking over, all distorted and all warped and all (again and again) way more fun than they should be.
A last picture or two of Chicago (at least for a few more pages) finds Jeanne Gang's Aqua Tower locked in a mortal standoff with its neighbors. Columbus Drive will never be the same.
