- 01 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Utility pole, apartment tower and second utility pole on N.Clinton
There are images of architectural reflections in other Chicago galleries which concentrate more closely on the shapes, patterns and colours within their glazing grids. Here, I’ve collected others which use a number of interpretations and approaches to place them prominently or otherwise into the compositions. This serendipitous image of a seemingly distorted skyscraper was created in the curved windshield glass of a large SUV parked up in North Clinton near the Kinzie Bridge.
- 02 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | A rush hour train on the viaduct at North Clinton & Kinzie Streets
The same SUV windshield conjured this image of a rush hour train on the viaduct carrying tracks from the Ogilvie Transportation Center which stands on the 500 West Madison site of the Chicago & North Western Railway terminal building of 1911. Close by at street level more large diesel locomotives hauling double deck passenger cars move in and out of Union Station’s subterranean platforms to cross Canal and Clinton Streets ‘on the level’- and literally within touching distance. Where do the fleeting faces they carry work in the City and where are they headed home?
- 03 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Anish Kapoor 2006: “Cloudgate” with architectural reflections
I seemed to take rather a lot of shots of reflections in this sculpture but ended up disappointed with most of them. I should have used a tripod more often but I rarely do and therefore must suffer the possible consequences. I tend to use a tree, building, lamp post or whatever if one is there to lean against. Using one slows actions and thoughts down but I tend to push on, but not quite regardless. Bright very early light is the only time to find The Bean uncluttered by people who all, like me, seemed to be wielding an image machine.
- 04 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Columbia College at 618 South Michigan Avenue façade
William Zimmerman designed the ten-floor Dennehy Building completed in 1913. Its large windows were set into a slender framework clad in white-glazed terra cotta tiles removed in a 1950s refit. Acquired by the College c.2010 a new glazed façade was fitted during further renovations. Digitally printed on to the glass in ceramic inks, the songbird shaped dots create a ghost image of the underlying original structural frame. Apart from aesthetic and historical associations it’s a practical deterrent to birds which might fly into otherwise clear glass. Interior structural reflections mingle with those of clouds outdoors.
- 05 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | West Loop around North Franklin and West
I’m unsure as to the exact location of this building and its reflection in the West Loop but it’s somewhere on a meandering walk from Wells Street Bridge to the Rookery Building. It’s an area of the Loop that I wished for more time to explore across days rather than a few hours.
- 06 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Reflections 1n 131 South Dearborn
I’d been looking at the 1974 ‘Calder-red’ Flamingo sculpture by Alexander Calder set in the Federal Plaza against architecture by Mies van der Rohe when I saw the slightly curving forms of the 131 South Dearborn building. Here it mirrors slivers of a couple of buildings across the street. The slender bright metal framework carries wide facades of almost unbroken curtain wall glazing. The combination of line, shape, pattern and the contrast of intense blue and stark white appealed.
- 07 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Façade at 303 West Monroe & South Franklin
Illumination was subdued but I was attracted by the light and shade modulations reflected on the façade by the glazing in adjacent buildings. They added another element to the patterns on the formal geometry of the host. A few individual windows contained interior fragments and lighting within their frames whilst others reflected details from adjacent buildings. The narrow reflecting strips on the uprights of the building’s frame add a vertical emphasis. I liked the contrast between the strong rectilinear structure and the random abstractions contained by individual frames.
- 08 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Façade detail and reflections on North Michigan Avenue
I’d wandered Michigan Avenue north of the Chicago River during the day with this image as one of the records. The most satisfying was a Saturday night session amongst shoppers and revellers which resulted in the MICHIGAN AVENUE PORTRAITS GALLERY. I’m not sufficiently disciplined for crack of dawn and after dark imagery but this was good and reliable mid-day sun.
- 09 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Entrance to 155 North Wacker Drive
I’d literally just arrived at Chicago’s Union Station following a journey from Seattle on the Coast Starlight and California Zephyr. Amtrak trains may be erratic in timing but it’s a great way way to see the country. To travel from New York to Chicago and then to San Francisco is a holiday in itself. I caught this image whilst trailing a travel bag and toting a camera walking east to my hotel on Wabash Avenue.
- 10 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Entrance to Mies van der Rohe’s IBM Building at 330 North Wabash
This perspective covers buildings across the Chicago River on East Wacker Drive and reflections of those around the London Guarantee Building by the Du Sable Bridge on North Michigan. It had been raining and the light for bright reflections had yet to build.
- 11 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Fragmentary train reflections above Wabash Avenue
I was behind the camera but cannot now decipher the possibly layered reflections within the image. The location I note is accurate but I’m slightly puzzled by the twin train reflections. Its seems to be straying a little from the ‘reflections’ theme but perhaps not.
- 12 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | A Swissotel façade fragment reflect from across the Chicago River
The simplest of twin-toned chequerboard glazing of the Swissotel Chicago creates similar variations in the crowded patterns on buildings across the Chicago River.
- 13 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Reflections in the Carbide and Carbon Building façade
Originally commissioned as the Bell Building in 1925 the buff glazed terra cotta classical revival style structure stands across North Michigan Avenue from the Carbide and Carbon building. Designed by the Burnham Brothers and completed in 1929 the latter is my favourite Chicago building. Its 40 floors in polished black granite and dark green terracotta trimmed with bronze are topped with gold leaf. (See Image 07 in CHICAGO 3)
- 14 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | A mix of objects and reflections at the Carbide and Carbon Building
This image is a puzzle for me that I recall as reflections of the Illinois Center façade across the street with a collection of coloured perspex forms set as part of a window display; I could have mis-remembered.
- 15 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Cartier refinement reflects the more mundane world of passing traffic
On North Michigan Avenue there is no shortage of upmarket stores including this one devoted to the refined and expensive objects displayed by Cartier. The calm and presumably quiet interior contrasted with the passing vehicle and human traffic on the street.
- 16 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Furniture store merchandise and reflected North Michigan streetscape
This image follows a similar interior/exterior theme.
- 17 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | Shop window and street reflections on North Michigan Avenue
In this second variation I liked the almost halved division between the clarity of the merchandise seemingly supporting the street traffic against a blend of clothing and architecture.
- 18 CHICAGO REFLECTIONS | North Michigan Avenue at Du Sable Bridge
One of the Bridge's four sculptured bridge tender houses edges into the image from the left. I looked through the viewfinder yet now find it difficult to accurately plot my square of occupied sidewalk. The foreground building fragment suggests the Art Deco 333 North Michigan Avenue building: the resulting confusion of direct and reflected imagery still appeals. It won’t happen but a future stay in Chicago would involve seeking out images with less structure and more reflective glass to create colour archistracts and abstractions.