Chicago - August 2015

In the middle of August 2015 we spent 4 or 5 days in Chicago.  Primarily this was to attend the White Coat Ceremony for Nancy's daughter Arden who was starting Medical School there but we also took the opportunity to do a little sight seeing while we were there.  I hadn't been to Chicago since the mid-1980's and people kept telling me what a wonderful city it was.  After this visit I kind of agree with them.

As I am a bit of a train nerd and since Nancy's brother Clayton was an ex-employee of Amtrak and lived nearby, he had arranged for a tour of Union Station for us.  The station is a magnificent building and apparently was an even more magnificent structure before the Concourse building was demolished.  They are taking care of what is left and renovating pieces here and there.  The staircase that was immortalized in the film "The Untouchables" (where the baby carriage rolls down the stairs) was being refurbished at the time of our visit so we didn't get to see that.  While it was easy to imagine what a wondrous place it was in the age of steam in todays diesel/electric world I didn't find it quite that inspiring.

Interesting fact - Union Station is so named because it was a union of some 5 railroad companies who combined their terminals on the site, and it is unique in that it is a double stub station with tracks from the north and south terminating there but no through trains.

Sculpture inMillenium Park

Chicago is a wonderful city to walk around - it has great architecture and great public art.  We visited Millennium Park where there is a sculpture by Amish Kapoor called Cloud Gate (more commonly referred to as "The Bean").  Everyone has lots of fun looking at their reflections in the piece and it certainly draws a lot of people to the park.

The Bean in Millenium Park

On the same site there is the Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa - an LED display of faces of regular Chicago citizens that from time to time emit a plume of water from their mouths.  On our visit it was quite warm and very humid so the fountain was a great hit with the young folk - everyone waiting anxiously for the fountain to spew forth its water.

Crown Fountain - Millenium Park

Crown Fountain

We spent a few hours in the Art Institute of Chicago - one of the major art museums in the country.  You could spend days there, but these days we can only manage a couple of hours before becoming overloaded.   It is certainly a candidate for a return visit.

The next day, Friday, was the White Coat Ceremony.  Lots of proud parents and friends, lots of photo opportunities, lots of inspirational talk about the road ahead for these students.   All very nice.  We finished the day with a fine meal at an Italian Restaurant in the Wicker Park district, Nando Milano.

Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio - Oak Park

On Saturday we went out to the Oak Park neighborhood to see some of the fine homes out there.  There is quite a cluster of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings there and his home and studio is now open to the public.  A wonderful house and interior but it is all about the look and not necessarily about the comfort or practicality or weather resistance.   The furniture looks very uncomfortable, apparently all the homes leak when it rains, and even the grand piano was embedded into the wall with the rear suspended outside the room over a stairway - that can't have helped the acoustics.  Luckily we were in the house during an epic downpour that surely would have drenched us had we been walking around.

Not so comfortable dining at the Wright House

Ornamentation at the Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio

In walking the neighborhood there were many fine homes, but alas the Unity Temple, another of Wright's buildings was undergoing renovation and was clad in Tyvek.   On our walk we came across the ultimate Frank Lloyd Wright fan - a young man with a tattoo portrait of Frank on his leg.   That might be carrying things a little too far and Frank really wasn't such a nice man.  But he did design some fine buildings.

The ultimate FLW Fan

On our last full day we again went downtown and took the architecture tour on the river.  The Chicago River is a wonderful platform to appreciate the architectural wonders of the city and the Chicago Architecture Foundation provide docent lead boat tours.   The tour lasts a couple of hours tour and it cruises up all three branches of the Chicago River.

Downtown Chicago from the River

My favorite building - the Carbide and Carbon building - is an art deco masterpiece now sadly a Hard Rock Cafe Hotel.  The interiors are fabulous too but in some way cheapened by being a Hard Rock Cafe.

The Carbide and Carbon Building

The guide for the tour was incensed that the very large TRUMP signage had appeared on the riverside tower that is now owned by him.  While just about every other building is unadorned or very subtly adorned with signage, Mr Trump has put his name in very large letters on his building.   To be expected I suppose.

Mr Trump's Building

During the boat tour we were also treated to a flight display by the Blue Angels - very impressive.

There are more photos here.