Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Art and Whimsy of Chicago

The entrance to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago often features an installation designed to attract attention and amusement. When we were in Chicago last November, these figures were next to the staircase leading up to the main entrance.
Architectural boat trips up the Chicago River are a restful way to enjoy and learn about the City's history and some of its downtown architecture.
The tower of the Wrigley Building is a landmark. Constructed in 1920-21, it was the firsttall office building north of the Chicago River. The tower is 425 feet (130 m) high, with a clock face almost 20 feet (6 m) in diameter.
This is a night view of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park. This is a seamless stainless steel egg, with a concave archway into which people can walk. It allows people to see the reflection of themselves and the Chicago skyline. If you look closely in this photo, you can see the buildings across Michigan Avenue beneath the light of the skyglow reflecting off low hanging clouds. This sculpture, by British artist Anish Kapoor, is 66 feet (40 m) long, 33 feet (20 m) high, and weighs 110 tons (100 metric tons).
The Miracle Mile shopping district is a good place to shop, especially if you have enough money to pull up in a car like this.
The top of the neo-classical Tribune Tower features flying buttresses 462 feet (131 m) above Michigan Avenue, across the street from the Wrigley Building. The Chicago Tribune sponsored a competition for what it said should be "the most beautiful and distinctive office building in the world" in 1922, with $100,000 in prize money ($50,000 to the winner and $20,000 for second place). The competition received lots of publicity. The winning submission of the 260 entries was by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood of New York, but many critics preferred the second place simplistic modern design by Finnish architect Eleil Saarinen. The Saarinen design influenced Raymond Hood's design of Rockefeller Center and was used for the 1929 Gulf Oil Building in Houston.

3 comments:

Expats Again said...

Love Chicago! Super photo of the Wrigley Tower!

glenda said...

Great photos of Chicago. Would love to visit again.

FilipBlog said...

For me Chicago is one of my favourite cities in the USA.

Greetings,
Filip

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...