The View From Grant Park Keeps A-Changin’
If you’ve gone to a festival, played softball, or just walked around Grant Park in the last decade or so, you’ve been a first-hand witness to the changing of Chicago’s skyline. 340 On The Park, The Legacy, Heritage At Millennium Park, Roosevelt University’s Wabash Building, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and the 300 East Randolph vertical expansion all added drama to the park border. Chicago skyline...
What We’re Thankful For: Chicago Skylines
On this day when we remember that for which we are thankful, let us remember the architects, urban planners, developers, construction workers, visionaries, and others who made Chicago possible. Chicago didn’t just happen. It took people, working individually and together, to assemble an urban colossus that shaped the nation a century ago, and nurtures future generations today. To that end, we present this photograph from Joe...
See How Chicago Grows
It’s no secret that Chicago’s Near North side has grown by leaps and bounds over the last five years. But how do you show that visually? Some people try maps. Some use charts. Others write long-winded blog posts that seemingly have nothing to do with the topic at hand. (Guilty!) But Joe Zekas over at YoChicago! has a better way: A single photograph. Well, it’s actually two photographs. One taken in 2013, and...
Frozen Chicago From Above
Thanks to Spy Tim for dropping a link in our Tip Line to this video by Soaring Badger Productions taken by one of those toy quadcopters. It’s a tour of the downtown Chicago shoreline on a frosty frosty Chicago day. Quadcopters were all the rage this past Christmas, and high quality videos are starting to flood the video sharing sites. Expect to see a lot more of these sort of videos. It’s a nice video, with lots of...
Best Places to View the Chicago Cityscape
Home to the first skyscraper, Chicago, Illinois, set a precedent of what can be accomplished with imagination, perseverance, and a little bit of iron and steel. Architectural visionaries and engineering geniuses pioneered the way, creating the blueprints of what is now Chicago’s remarkable cityscape. Here at Expedia Viewfinder, examining and learning about architecture is one of our favorite ways to explore any location. Because its...
Slice of Life: Chicago in Silhouette
There are so many great places to take pictures of Chicago’s skyline. And you can never go wrong with a lake view. Reader Rita Anthony sent in this picture of our city’s magnificent eastern face taken at dusk. This article is the result of photos sent in by someone just like you. If you see something interesting in your neighborhood, e-mail your phone pics to chicagoarchitectureinfo@gmail.com. Check out our Tip Line for...
Reminder: This Is Why We Live Here
It’s been a brutal winter. Things haven’t been this bad since gas was 60¢ a gallon. Even WGN-TV had a report on the news last night about how to keep on keeping on without putting a bullet in your brain. Then this morning there was a great sunrise. Because I’m a cat owner, I get to involuntarily see every sunrise, and this was the first nice one we’ve had in months. Apparently, you agree because Loop Spy...
Pier-cing Lake Michigan
Navy Pier pierces lake Michigan, next to another man-made spit of land: The Jardine Water Filtration Plant. If you like this photograph, click here to order it as a poster or...
Chicago in Blue, Gold, and Green
Wedged between a deep blue sky and an emerald green Lake Michigan, Chicago’s Gold Coast skyscrapers stretch north along the shoreline. If you like this photograph, click here to order it as a poster or...
Randolph Streetwall
The Randolph Street skyscraper streetwall marks the northern edge of Grant Park. If you like this photograph, click here to order it as a poster or...