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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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It is probably no longer politically correct to refer to an institution for people with mental health issues as a bughouse, but the "Bughouse Square" nickname for Washington Square Park was an attempt to capture some of the craziness that came with the eccentrics and expressive orators who took park in debates and other public forums the park during the early decades of the last century. Bughouse was then the slang for what would later generations would refer to as the looney bin or Cuckoo's Nest.
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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 Newberry Library is holding its annual book fair this weekend. There are somewhere around 130,000 books, records, and related items for sale. I have to say, book fairs are not my thing, maybe because we already have too many books and records in our house. Despite my reservations, the fair is a big deal. I arrived shortly after the 10AM opening. The first floor was already packed, with people looking for bargains and gems.
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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.
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Pictured is a sculpture that adjourns the City and County Building. Analogous to Certs--Two Mints In One--the Cook County Main Administration building is combined with Chicago's City Hall in an 11-story, Greek-styled building designed by Chicago architectural powerhouse Holabird & Root.
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150 North Riverside Plaza opened for occupancy earlier this year. It sits above the Amtrak rail lines feeding into Chicago's Union Station. The building is a visual delight, perched on single leg, with the east and west sides moving out on the diagonal, and then jutting straight up. Will it tip?
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Photographers always find new opportunities whenever a new building is completed. 150 North Riverside Plaza provides many opportunities given the elevated public space in back of the building and the promenade running along the Chicago River. Once it opens, the Starbucks may also offer some interesting opportunities, but that will depend on the depth of the outlet.
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Last year at this time, the building under construction at 150 North Riverside Plaza had not yet topped out. The plaza abutting the Chicago River was filled with building materials and construction equipment, with steel and glass being hoisted by a crane. I have photographs to prove it.
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Helmut Jahn's State of Illinois Building is in a state of disrepair. Chicago Tribune architectural columnist Blair Kamin points to rusted columns, chipped paint, and duct tape holding faded carpets together. There is also the smell of fast food grease wafting through the atrium from the food court on the lower level. All of this mirrors the State of Illinois' budget crisis, which will continue to plague the state despite the band-aid tax increase signed into law ten days ago by Governor Bruce Rauner.
Unfortunately, but appropriately, Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast, which is located at the building's southeast corner, is in similar disrepair. The 10-ton sculpture has faded in parts from white to cigarette-finger yellow. It appears to be chipped, with parts of it covered in graffiti, which serves as another example of why we can't have nice things.
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Ah, yes, we all remember being a kid and partaking in the joys of summer. No school, so head down to the Daley Plaza, and then use the Picasso statue as a slide.
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I headed over to the Chicago Cultural Center today intent on photographing the Tiffany Glass dome that sits above the Preston Bradley Hall. This is the dome that has the star power because it is believed to be the world's largest Tiffany dome. At 11:00AM the light was perfect, with the sun not quite directly overhead. Unfortunately, the hall was closed for an event--high school students.
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Let's face it, one of life's simple pleasures in lying in the sun on a hot summer day in July. This gentlemen has it going on: The towel behind his head, the sunglasses slightly askew, and dressed in white head to toe. All serve to emphasize his deep tan. He is gracing one of the new lounge chairs that line Navy Pier. Yes, there is nothing better than lying out in the sun on a hot summer day in July.
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Several stores opened pop-up shops on Navy Pier as part of the festivities surrounding the launch of the 109th Chicago-to-Macinac Island sailboat race held by the Chicago Yacht Club. One of the stores offered patrons the opportunity to acquire what looked like some high-end cigars and to then smoke them under a small tented area overlooking Lake Michigan.
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Today was the start of the Chicago Yacht Club's 109th Race to Mackinac, a 333-mile sprint from Chicago to Mackinac Island in Michigan. The race begins with a parade of boats past the east end of Navy Pier. More than 300 boats pass by, most with sails down. Then the boats head through the breakwater to the start line. The starts are staggered.
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Mwata Bowden, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), brought his band, One Foot In, One Foot Out, to the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art for a Tuesdays on the Terrace performance. Bowden is not to be missed, particularly when he brings Ari Brown (tenor saxophone), Avreeayl Ra (drums), and Harrison Bankhead (bass), all AACM members, with him. Let's not forget Phil Q. on trumpet and Bowden's son, Khari B., who added poetry and rap to the mix.
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The Lincoln Park Boat Club held the 37th Annual Sprints Regatta on July 7 through the 9th in the lagoon that seperates Lincoln Park from Lake Shore Drive. I was in Maine at a photography workshop during the week, but managed to make it back for Sunday's finals. The event features 1,000-meter, side-by-side, Henley style racing. I don't have this year's numbers, but last year, over 1,000 athletes participated, with 27 clubs from 10 states in the chase for victory.
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Just about every event passes through the Trump filter in this day and age. Today, the Lions Clubs International held a parade on Chicago's State Street to commemorate the Chicago-based organization's 100th anniversary. One parade participant proudly told me that the Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, with 1,400,000 members in somewhere around 200 countries. The organization focuses its efforts on visual impairment, hearing loss, disaster relief, diabetes awareness, and other good causes.
