Page 4 of 5
Chicago, Illinois
We're going down the road towards tiny cities made of ashes
So after visiting Marina City, the Aqua Tower, the South Pond Pavilion, Edgar Miller’s studio, the Tribune Tower, the Mansueto Library, the Art Institute, Crown Hall, surviving the research tower at the Johnson Wax Building (where visitors are lucky to get out alive) and that nice, panorama overview of the skyline from Lake Michigan, we’re fast forwarding six months and headed right back to Chicago for their Open House Weekend, to see even more of the city than even the AIA could show me.
We’re here for a busy weekend and we need to stay focused to see all of the things we want to. Our first stop is at 190 La Salle, a Johnson Burgee tower with a 40th floor library open for Open House. The law library certainly looks like it was designed by Johnson Burgee in the middle of their Post Modern glory, although the view out the window is probably the best part about it.
Our next stop is the Lyric Opera, which literally opened its doors and let people inside to take pictures or just hang out, both of which I was happy to take advantage of.
I have attended open house events in London, New York, Toronto and now here in Chicago (this is my second Open House Chicago Weekend). They are wonderful in so many ways, and one of them is getting to see inside spaces like this, spaces I would likely never have a reason to otherwise see inside, or (sometimes) spaces I might not know ever even existed.
Speaking of a space that I never knew even existed, welcome to the Metropolitan Club. And if the view looks familiar, that’s because we’re pretty high up on the 67th floor of the Sears, um, I mean Willis Tower. The Metropolitan Club is private, exclusive and expensive, except for Open House Chicago Weekend when it’s free and filled with people like me.
I might have not know that the Metropolitan Club existed, but I certainly knew that Lake Point Tower did. Lake Point Tower is that big black curvy Mies looking tower that was not actually designed by Mies, although it was designed by some of his former students. I have seen it many times and often wondered what it was like inside, and now I do. The lobby is Miesian without that Mies touch (sorry Mies students) and the view from the restaurant near the top is possibly the best view in Chicago. They would make a fortune if they turned that into an observation deck, although maybe the residents who occupy the rest of the building wouldn’t be all too happy about all the extra people in the lobby and on the elevators.
Just like the Lake Point Tower, I knew of the Atheron (sorry, the Warwick Atherton) Hotel because of its weird (or maybe I mean memorable) TIP TOP TAP sign, which Open House Chicago let me see up close.
We’re smack dab in the middle of the best views of Millennium Park at Cliff Dwellers, a club where Frank Lloyd Wright was a member, although when he was a member the view wasn’t quite so nice when it was still just the railyards and station that are now covered up by so many new five star attractions.
Our last stop for this page of the slideshow is just around the corner (and down a few block) at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership Building. It was nice inside, but not as nice as it was on the outside where its jagged and overlapping curtain wall was on display.
