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Chicago, Illinois
My car goes Chicago every weekend to pick up some cargo
So what exactly are we looking at here? Is it a person looking at a giant sign or a regular sized sign being looked at by a little tiny person? Neither is right, although the second option is a lot closer
This is an installation by Tomoaki Suzuki on the rooftop terrace at the Renzo Piano addition to the Chicago Art Institute, with a little tiny sculpture of a guy looking at a giant sign asking people not to touch him. Even though this little guy is super fun, this trip to Chicago is about more than just a little tiny person looking at a regular sized sign. We’re here for the shockingly fun Open House Chicago weekend event where, during two days, I was able to visit 26 sites, of which we’ll include about seven on this page of the slideshow.
We’re starting with some detail shots of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, famously designed by Frank Gehry. The pavilion is a public building open all the time, but Open House Chicago stepped things up by letting you on stage and backstage, allowing you to get some detail shots just like this.
Our next Open House Chicago stop is an architectural office, and by office I mean that literally. We are in the private office of Helmut Jahn- the first picture is his window view, the second picture is his desk and sailboat model.
Jahn’s office (and offices) are in the Jewelers Building, on the river at Wabash Street. The offices are on the lower floors, but he also has the top observation deck like gallery space, with a very Jahn-like grid inside and killer views throughout.
Open House Chicago includes more than just visits to architectural offices, but I’ll show just one more. This is Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and that great big shiny red model is the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, the world’s future tallest tower.
Ok, I said that we were done visiting architectural offices, but I kind of lied. I say kind of because even though we’re visiting the Nelson offices, it’s really because of the building. Nelson is located inside SOM’s Inland Steel Building, where downstairs the “Icehenge” reception desk was designed by Frank Gehry and upstairs a scary shark appears to move about unimpeded.
We’re done with architecture offices but not done with architecture. This is Aqua, a hotel (lower floors) and residences (upper floors) designed by Jeanne Gang, and it is a building that looks so different depending on where you are seeing it from. Luckily Open House Chicago is giving us a rare glimpse from another view…
… like from inside and from the balcony. This may be one of my favorite pictures ever, and I like it so much I’m going to stop overexplaining things for once and just hope you like it as much as I do.
Open House Chicago is run by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the same people who operate the architectural boat cruises and that shop and gallery near the Art Institute. When researching Open House Chicago sites, I read that Chicago Architecture Foundation members get special access to buildings and are allowed to cut the line at sites. This caused me to buy a membership, and then stop by the Chicago Architecture Foundation first to pick up my temporary membership card. That card got me into here, the University Club, a terrific space right on Michigan Avenue that was only open to Chicago Architecture Foundation members. Like (now) me.
Our last site is the Chicago Temple, a skyscraper church where the church is up top. This site had crazy long lines, but I walked right in as a Chicago Architecture Foundation member, such a great deal.
I am really cutting this trip short on the slideshow, otherwise we’d be in Chicago for a few more pages catching up on all of the other nineteen (or so) sites like the Auditorium Building at Roosevelt University, the Carson Pirie Scott Building, the Monroe Building, the Marquette Building and the SOM Offices at the Railway Exchange Building, among others,
