Haunting in the Loop...

Our Benevolent Dictator, Da'Mare, who will go to no ends to ensure his name is plastered on anything owned by the city and vertical, has done this "Haunted Village" in his fathers namesake plaza for nearly ten years now.
Each year I pass by the orange cauldron of water churning in the fountain, looking at the carved pumpkins sitting on shelves behind chicken wire, and think to myself... "Only in Chicago..."
Well, again this year I have been passing by this haunted splendor sitting in modernist Daley Plaza for a few weeks, and until tonight, I still hadn't taken the time to take photographs. So finally, with tonight being Halloween, I went over and took a few images.


The orange lights in the trees and the cauldron of orange water is quite striking. Tonight being Halloween, this was my last chance to catch the orange water, for historically, the fountain is shut down and drained beginning on November, 1st.


Close up of the fountain.


Carved pumpkins behind chicken wire beyond the fountain.


They do a nice job creating an atmosphere that if I were a little kid, it would surely seem scary.

Nice Day for a Parade...

So thought 1.75 million people...

I wasn't able to take much time away from the office (Damn meetings and work) to attend the ticker tape parade on LaSalle Street, but I did manage to get away long enough to walk down to Jackson and Canal to see the motorcade.

Here we see the team members in double decker buses heading towards LaSalle Street.


Conveniently... They placed signs on the fronts of all of the busses to let people like me know who the heck we are looking at. That said, I knew this was Ozzie Guillen and Konerko at the front of this bus.


The tail end of the motorcade heading towards the parade.


While I may not have been able to get over to LaSalle Street, a co-worker did, and she brought this back to the office.

Special guest photo credit goes to Lila Licea. Thanks Lila!

Oh, BTW... If you want to see some fantastic images of the parade, check out Chicagoist' Team Photo Coverage over at Flickr

Chase Tower...

Now that Chase Tower is officially known as Chase Tower, and no longer known as Bank One Plaza, I noticed they have done a heck of a clean up job there. Here are a few images I shot a few weeks ago. (Oh, BTW...They didn't change the name to Chase Plaza, because Chicago already has a building named Chase Plaza.)

A quiet moment when the fountain is still.


There is still nothing quite like looking straight up the curving side of the building.


Close up of the Chagall. This piece of public art is a great treasure for those of us that live here.


The pretty new CTA Blue Line Entrance.

Congratulations White Sox!

As I noted earlier this week, I am not one to pay close attention to sports... But, I can't help being proud to be a Chicagoan tonight. Congrats to the South Side!

Millennium Park in the Abstract II...

Millennium Park is a great place to capture shapes, forms, shadows, and patterns, especially when there isn't anybody there. I did a post called Millennium Park in the Abstract last May, it is time for a follow-up.

Several weeks ago, we had to vacate my apartment early on a Sunday morning for a helicopter lift in the neighborhood. We took the opportunity, and headed over to the park where I proceeded to shot about 200 images and spent a lot of time around the Gehry Band Shell. The Jay Priztker Pavilion presents a multitude of opportunities for photographers, and here is a sample of what I shot.


Which seat is "AAA6"?


Trellis with band shell.


Trellis with Mid Continental Plaza in the background.

Mies Most Miesian...

While touring the IIT Campus Saturday before last, the tour ended at what is perhaps Mies most famous work. Crown Hall has influenced architecture for the last 50 years, and to those that "get it", it is a masterpiece of minimalism. IIT just completed an honorable restoration of the hall, and it is glowing like it hasn't since the 50s. The black is black, the aluminum is aluminum, and the glass is spectacular.

This shot is the shadow of the building name on the glass at the main entrance.


Outside front of the building


At 120 feet by 200 feet, this is essentially one giant column free classroom.


Shadow of trees on windows


Library on the lower level. I love the collection of chairs lining the bookshelves.


Crown Hall from Jahn's State Street Village.

Random Mondays 10.24.05...

Looking for images to use in my third post of Random Mondays, I wanted to really be random. Since this is an architecture focused blog, I felt I should include at least a couple of building images, but I also wanted to find a couple of other images to post as well... So here goes... I will probably tinker with the formula for Random Mondays, but any input from my readers is encouraged.

Standing between east and west towers on the plaza of Marina City looking straight up, last Sunday.


Zebra's ass, at the Lincoln Park Zoo.



Top of Tribune Tower. This image has always been elusive for me. I have made multiple attempts, but not to great success. The angle of this one is a bit off, but the lighting of the top is quite a bit closer to what I have been trying to capture. I will keep trying...


Fish with cigarette butt. This past Saturday, we were along the Fox River in St. Charles where I found this pile of dead fish.

Almost Fall, in Island Park...

I had a rental car this weekend and Michael and I took off, not quite knowing where we were going to end up. Late in the day we found ourselves at Island Park, in Geneva, IL. Its funny how fall colors are different even among different trees. This little guy is quite ready for winter, while the older bigger ones seem to be saying, not quite yet.


I don't know what this flower is, but it was a surprise to find it growing in a park where there were no other flowers.


Looking across the water, fall is slowly appearing...


Another bit of color.

Go Sox!?!...

Anybody who knows me well, knows I would rather be taking pictures of buildings than watching sports, but as disinterested in sports as I may be, I would be glad to see the Sox win, and win big. At the very least, this is bringing in lots of money in sales tax to the city.

State Street Village...

In continuation from yesterday of our tour of IIT this past Saturday, we got to see up close the Helmut Jahn designed, new student housing at IIT. Completed in 2003, this was Jahn's first project in Chicago in quite a long time.

The view standing at the corner of State and 33rd looking south.


Looking up from the same spot. Jahn's newer designs are an improvement over his work in the 80s. I see similarities to the Shure Headquarters building in Niles.


The top floor of each building has an outdoor terrace for the students with great views of the downtown skyline and Crown Hall across the street.


Downtown skyline looking along the sun shades between each terrace.


Same shot focusing on the sun shade itself.


The student housing faces the Green Line, our tour guide told us that the double pane windows use two different thicknesses of glass to minimize the sound transmission of the train.

Koolhaas at IIT...

This past Saturday, Michael and I took the Architecture Foundation's "Mies and Modernism: The IIT Campus Tour" and aside from being in complete overwhelm with all of the Mies buildings, I was equally blown away by Rem Koolhaas' design for the McCormick Tribune Campus Center. The center is so completely different from very Miesian surroundings, yet the relationship is very clear. I had seen the building from a car driving down State Street, but this was the first time I was able to walk inside and take it in. All I can say is Wow!

The entrance on State Street uses tiny icons of varying shapes to create the image of Mies Van Der Rohe. This was Koolhaas' ode to his modernist forefather.


Inside the front entrance is this hallway leading off on a angle. There are several passageways on various angles which represent the pattern created by students walking through the grass before the structure was built.


Looking down into the dining area. Jacobsen's Series 7 Chairs (1955) still look so current.


Looking south through the center of the building. The steel structure above is the underside of the tube which wraps around the CTA's Green Line.


Outside, you can see how the building appears crushed by the tube structure wrapping the "L" tracks.

Random Mondays 10.17.05...

Continuing the "Random Mondays" theme...

This is a great example of 60s design which almost nobody knows about. It is an outdoor screen along the east side of the SBC Building on Randolph and Franklin. It shields the employee smoking area from the alley.


Standing on a balcony in the upper 30s, one can see this reflection of both Marina City Towers in the Quaker building.


Cardinal on head of the Fountain of the Great Lakes in the small garden, south of the main entrance at the Art Institute.


Water cascading down Plensa Fountain (Millennium Park) last spring.

"H" and "E" Coming Soon...

I tried to post this last night, but have been having ISP issues. I will post Random Mondays this evening provided my connection is fixed.

As seen yesterday, looking at the south side of the building from the top of a parking structure on Wabash, "C_AS_" is putting up a new sign on their newly acquired building.


Closer Up


Curiosity forced us to check out the north side of the building from the roof of West Tower, Marina City. Same Letters, with a crooked logo.