- 01 CHICAGO 11 | Anish Kapoor: ‘Cloud Gate’ with reflections
Born in India, the British sculptor Anish Kapoor created the Cloud Gate completed in Millennium Park in 2006. Standing some 30 feet high it’s formed from over 150 formed and welded pieces of stainless steel polished to mirror smoothness and reflectivity. It presents a myriad of reflections as one walks around and under it. Here, the architecture of South Michigan Avenue provides both hard geometry and soft elongated curvature.
- 02 CHICAGO 11 | Cloud Gate, trees and buildings
Standing under the light and sound framework of Frank Gehry’s Pritzker Pavilion one can see the arched profile of Cloud Gate against a collage of building facades on Michigan Avenue. The popular local name for the sculpture is The Bean.
- 03 CHICAGO 11 | A Michigan Avenue architectural collage
Walking forward into the previous image enlarges the architectural collage. The framework of a fire escape separates the red of the Smith Gaylord & Cross Building from the white of 30 North Michigan Avenue.
- 04 CHICAGO 11 | 20 North Michigan – Smith, Gaylord and Cross Building 1882
Completed in 1882, renovated in1891 and completely restore inside and out in 2007 the eight floor Smith, Gaylord and Cross Building is wider and lower than most of its neighbours. It was once occupied by a John M Smith Homemakers furniture store, a family chain that sold up in 2005 after 130 years of trading. Comprehensively renovated inside and out its street level façade now carries the name Illinois State Medical Society.
- 05 CHICAGO 11 | 520 South Michigan Avenue – Congress Plaza Hotel
Designed by Clifton Warren the original Congress Plaza Hotel was completed in 1893 although its current appearance followed subsequent alterations and additions. The original Congress Plaza Hotel was completed in 1893 although its current appearance followed subsequent alterations and additions. The large expanses of stacked window bays are unadorned but in slanting sunlight create ever changing tonal patterns across the façade.
- 06 CHICAGO 11 | 220 South Michigan: Orchestra Hall 1904 - Symphony Center 1995-1997
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra played its first concert in Sullivan’s nearby Auditorium Theatre. Their Orchestra Hall in this now Symphony Center building was completed in 1904 to designs by Daniel Burnham. I had to wait for some time before accomplishing this pedestrian free image.
- 07 CHICAGO 11 | Symphony Center
Renovation, alterations and extensions were completed during 1995-1997 to create the Symphony Center. Perhaps of that time this narrow and slightly setback structure stands to the right of the main building shown in the previous image. A similar extension in 1904 style is set to the left opf the main façade.
- 08 CHICAGO 11 | 2004 Cloud Gate arc against nineteenth century architecture
A fragment of Cloud Gate cuts across the Montgomery Ward Tower and the adjoining 20 North Michigan Avenue building.
- 09 CHICAGO 11 | North Michigan Avenue: Montgomery Ward Tower 1902
Aaaron Montgomery Ward established a mail order business in Chicago in 1872. This is a detail from their headquarters building completed in 1899 next to a warehouse of 1899. Topped by a tall spire reaching 394 feet it was until 1922 the City’s tallest building. This is a detail showing one and a half of the four central brick piers in a symmetrical façade with a mirror image of this wing to the left. I liked the linear decoration and tonal contrasts
- 10 CHICAGO 11 | 12 South Michigan: Chicago Athletic Association 1893
The Chicago Athletic Association building was designed in Venetian Gothic style by Henry Ives Cobb and completed in 1893, the year of the World’s Fair in the city. After over a century housing this private sports club it closed in 2007. A careful exterior restoration was paralleled by an interior transformation into an hotel. Sports related artefacts, salvaged original materials and related new designs maintain visual links with its first incarnation. The Hotel’s website contains images of the interior before its reconstruction.
- 11 CHICAGO 11 | 8 South Michigan: Willoughby Tower
Designed by Samuel N Crowen & Associates the Willoughby Tower was completed in 1929. Steel framed and reaching 38 floors with upper setbacks, its main cladding is limestone. The ghost lettering for a past tenant showing top-left in this image as HABERDASHERS is followed by A Sulka & Company SHIRTMAKERS NEW YORK LONDON PARIS. This entrance is offset to the left corner in the façade.
- 12 CHICAGO 11 | 122 South Michigan: Peoples Gas Light And Coke Building 1910
This substantial 21 storey office building in steel, granite and terra cotta was completed in 1911 to the designs of Burnham & Company for the Peoples Light, Gas & Coke Company. Ten plain granite columns with Ionic capitals line the front of this corner building and eight along the Adams Street façade.
- 13 CHICAGO 11 | 122 South Michigan: Ornamental details
Recording details from a column, its Ionic capital and the decorated entablature it supports.
- 14 CHICAGO 11 | 122 South Michigan: window grid and cladding study
Much of each facade is taken up with a spread of small windows between the grand classical columns at street level and the ornate colonnade to the final upper floors. This detail shows the formal relief patterns applied to the surface terra cotta cladding.
- 15 CHICAGO 11 | 30 North Michigan Avenue
Built in 1913-14 to designs by Jarvis Hunt this building has a steel frame under white terra cotta cladding. Originally 17 floors a further five were added at a later date. Over time the increased compression on the cladding caused cracking of the tiles and increasing damage from the weather. A 2000-2009 restoration stripped them back to the main structure for renovation and resetting. This view shows a detail from just above the podium floors.
- 16 CHICAGO 11 | 30 North Michigan Avenue
This is a detail from higher on the façade.
- 17 CHICAGO 11 | 333 North Michigan Avenue
This Art Deco building designed by Holabird & Root overlooks the Avenue and the DuSabre Bridge over the Chicago River. It’s described as the first City skyscraper in the Art Deco style and stands close to the site of Fort Dearborn built in 1803. The sculptor Fred Torrey completed seven intaglio relief panels based on the City’s history set between fifth floor windows: their height is seven feet. Here, sculptures four to seven depict The Vanishing Indian, The Pioneer Woman, The Attack on Fort Dearborn and The Traders.
- 18 CHICAGO 11 | 230 North Michigan Avenue: Carbide and Carbon Building entrance
This tower was built for the Union Carbide and Carbon Co. to 1928 designs by the Burnham Brothers, sons of architect Daniel Burnham, 1846-1912, who contributed much to the City. The Michigan Avenue entrance and public areas beyond are exuberant expressions of the Art Deco style. The base is black granite and supports a tower clad in dark green terra cotta panels: gold leaf enhances the Art Deco reliefs and bronze forms contribute further details.