All in Urban Landscapes
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The Chicago Athletic Association Building now houses a boutique 241-room hotel, with a ground-floor Shake Shack, the Cherry Circle Room on the hotel's second floor, and Cindy's, a rooftop restaurant and bar, with an outdoor terrace. The interior is pretty snazzy.
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Not much to say about this one. That's the Prudential Building. If you doubt me, read the sign at the top. It was completed in 1955--the first skyscraper built in Chicago following the Great Depression. I am standing in Millennium Park's Lurie Garden.
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I am standing dead center on the BP Bridge, which connects Chicago's Millennium Park with the newer Maggie Daley Park. The bridge is one of the most frustrating photographic subjects in Chicago. Designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, its stainless steel parapets and hardwood planked floor slithers across Columbus Drive, bringing children and their parents to the two gigantic climbing walls, an ice skating ribbon, and the playground areas that makeup much of Daley Park.
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No snow today. The temperature was well above 32F until sunset. Yet, for me, today marked the start of winter. I was still after that elusive photograph of the new Apple store that overlooks the Chicago River.
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Finally, after at least a year and half, Apple's new flagship store opened tonight at 5PM, with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the premises. The hordes were out there, worshipping the glass monolith just as the apes worshipped the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. From the monolith comes knowledge.
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The Cubs will not be repeating this year thanks to a powerful LA Dodger team, but that is not the only tragedy befalling Wrigleyville, Cubs fans, and late night drunks at bar time. News broke in early August that the much beloved Taco Bell at 111 West Addison would be closing, to be replaced with a shiny new 39,755 square foot three-story retail development.
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This photograph is either a two or four-minute exposure at F32 and ISO 100. I was using the iPad wireless app to trigger the shutter, and the camera appears to have recorded the shutter speed shown on the dial rather than the one I inputed into the application. My camera was fitted with a 10-stop neutral density filter, which explains the silky water and fuzzy clouds.
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Just finished a glass of Sauvignon Blanc at the rooftop bar of the recently opened Ace Hotel in the West Loop on Morgan Street. The bar opened August 10. Then headed over to the 'L' to get the long view of the Lake Street elevated line.
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I hate balconies, particularly when they are added to classic brick buildings. The developers will tell you that apartments and condos must have balconies to make them attractive, Yet, aside from storing grills on them, nobody seems to use them. Look closely at this photograph. It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon in August. Not a single person is on any of the balconies.
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The photograph was taken from the rooftop bar of the Ace Chicago Boutique Hotel. If I had guests in town, I might suggest staying here. It is a little off the beaten path if the Michigan Avenue, Lake Michigan, and Millennium Park are your destinations, but they are all a relatively quick "L" or cab ride away. One thing is for sure, this neighborhood is now restaurant central.
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The photograph may not fully capture the effect of the curve, but someone standing at the base, looking up, first sees the actual bend. If the person stares long enough, the top of the building appears to bend back over the person, which is just an illusion.
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Regular readers have seen this photograph before, but this one is very different from the earlier one. It's later afternoon, with the sun streaming in between two skyscrapers, providing a wonderful glow to the scene.
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A few weeks back I said that I have had trouble capturing an image of the Jean Dubuffet sculpture that sits in front of Helmut Jahn's State of Illinois building. While heading out from today's 50th-anniversary reenactment of the the unveiling of the Picasso statue in Daley Plaza, I passed the west wall of the Daley Plaza. I had noticed the reflection before, but today the colors were striking and I liked the tableau of pedestrians. Not much more to say.
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Today, the City's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events held a reenactment of the August 15, 1967 unveiling of the Picasso statue that sits in Daley Plaza. Although a major tourist attraction, as well is should be, Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate has usurped the Picasso's stature with city residents and visitors. Personally, I prefer the Picasso, which includes many classic Picasso motifs folded into its Cor-Ten steel outline and shapes.
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This photograph was shot from the third floor outdoor bar at the Chicago Loews Hotel in Streeterville, looking southwest to the famed London Guarantee & Accident Building on the south shore of the Chicago River at the intersection of Michigan and Wacker. The bar, dubbed Streeterville Social, is a nice place to hang on a warm summer night. We visited it after seeing Kathryn Bigelow's outstanding film, Detroit, at the nearby cineplex. We were seated on a coach under a large umbrella. The corn, pepper and mushroom flatbread, mussels, and watermelon feta salad were all excellent, as was the margarita.
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Sometimes your best shot is behind you, which was the case today (and maybe everyday in the case of this location). Standing at the foot of glass tower, I looked up, discovering the reflective qualities of its skin. The partitioned mirrors serve to compress the six blocks of riverscape to the east. Even better, the mirrors create wavy distortion. A great take on the riverscape.
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Double ecstasy might be a malt and fries from McDonald's, or something else. If you are lucky, it might be both. Lollapalooza is in town for its annual four-day run in Grant Park, so the streets are filled with suburban kids in J. Crew and NBA gear, as well as investment bankers who can afford the $6,600 platinum package. Time is the only thing that separates the two.
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The South Loop used to be a rather desolate place, but Columbia College, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, and Jones College Prep have changed brighten the area. With all those students, there is plenty of cheap eats and urban funk. There is even a hostel, offering cheap and clean rooms--J. Ira & Nicki Harris Family Hotel, which is also known as Hi Chicago.
Photographer's Note. I didn't have my technical camera with me, so convergence was an issue. Fortunately I had a rather long lens (110mm). I find that convergence becomes less of a problem when using longer lens.
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The 3-acre Washington Square Park sits just south of the Newberry Library. The American Land Development Company donated the land to the City of Chicago in 1842 for a public park. It hoped to make the area more attractive for high-end residential development. While its intentions were good, the Company probably never envisioned that the park would be a center for boisterous vocal debate, attracting what today might be described as left-wingers and Occupy Wall Street types. The resulting racket probably was not the first preference of local residents.
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The photographer takes the Tiffany Dome in the Chicago Cultural Center's Preston Bradley Hall as he or she finds it. The 38-foot in diameter dome has been lit by natural light since its restoration in 2008.
