Tuesday, September 25, 2007

55th Street Mural

Disappearing rapidly while 55th street is under repair. I took this photo just as crews were setting up construction cones and screens around the underpass.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

The Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. 5850 S. Woodlawn. Designed and built at the request of John D. Rockefeller to be the "central and dominant feature" of the campus of the University of Chicago. More facts and photos here.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Historic Stones

Emdedded along the exterior walls of the Tribune Tower are 132 historic stones brought back by Chicago Tribune correspondents from significant locations around the world. The nice thing about these stones is that they are at street level where they have an identifying marker and people are free to touch these tiny bits of history.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Downtown Jailhouse

71 W. Van Buren at Clark. Right in the south loop is the Metropolitan Correctional Center with its distinctive triangular footprint and 5 inch slitted windows. The rooftop is an exercise area where its occupants can watch the downtown goings-on including the hustle and bustle around the Harold Washington Library (the main Chicago Public Library) and the DePaul University downtown campus. Read other reviews of this building here.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

New York on the Blog

The New York Public Library on 42nd St. Six years after 9/11, we're still looking for answers to questions that become more confusing with each passing year. On this day, every city is New York City and we are all survivors asking, at what price, peace?

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Jackson Harbor

Okay, here we are at Jackson Harbor. I took this from the Marina Cafe (an interminable wait but excellent food) which is housed in Jackson Harbor Station formerly a coast guard outpost. It was beautiful, and slightly chilly, and though we were a small group of patrons, about four or five tables in all--the lower deck was closed for the end of season--everyone was having a good time thanks to the house specialty: rum smoothies. Anyway, here is a link that will show you superb other views of this lovely and peaceful area by Chicago architecture critic Lee Bey, please go and check his site out--it is full of goodies and treasures and supremely well done photography; and last but not least, here's a link to what the dp blog Chicago Flair posted on Jackson Harbor in July of this year.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Blow Wind Blow

Mayor Daley has pledged to rid the city of homelessness by 2012--and through various research methods found that the number of homeless people in Chicago has gone down dramatically since. This man going through the trash on Michigan Avenue is supposedly just one of the few (24 to be precise) homeless people living on the streets of downtown. But what do I know, really...

Monday, September 3, 2007

Linne in the Readers Garden

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778; also known as Carl Linne) is known as the Father of Modern Taxonomy. His statue can be found nestled in the Midway across from the University of Chicago. Commissioned by Swedish Americans and installed in Lincoln Park in 1891, the statue was moved to Midway Plaisance in 1976 after vandals stripped the statue of four allegorical female figures surrounding Linne.
The Readers Garden where Linne's statue can be found. Between Woodlawn and Ellis Avenue at Midway.