Take a Trip Back In Time With The Chicago Park District
Two of Chicago’s most valuable — and under-appreciated — public amenities have gotten together to enhance your love of the Windy City. The Chicago Park District has donated 10,000 historic photographs of the city’s parks to the Chicago Public Library, which has made them available to see for free on the intarwebs. This is where your journey down the rabbit hole...
Loved and Hated, Old and New, Chicago’s Main Library Still Exudes Controversy
It’s a Chicago building that can’t escape notice. And once you notice it, you can’t help but react to it. The Harold Washington Library Center (400 South State Street) stands stalwart in the South Loop, once a decaying and sad part of the city, now the nexus of regeneration and vitality. Opened to the public in 1991, the design of Chicago’s central library building has always been more than a little...
Smoking Hot Model: Harold Washington and Friends
It’s been a while since we’ve done an installment of Smoking Hot Models, so here’s a bonus edition — with both winners and losers. This time it’s the Harold Washington Library Center (400 South State Street). In the southeast corner of the eighth floor of the library are the models of the losing entries into the contest to design this building. They show that, for all the flack this building takes, it...
Hot Model: Cloud Gate
At some point in a building’s life, whether it be before, or after, or during construction, a model of the building is made. Very often these models end up hidden away in offices, closets, and storage spaces where they can’t be appreciated by the public. But every once in a while, one of these smoking hot models escapes and is on public view. This is one: This is the model of Cloud Gate, which in just a few short months went from...
Status Update: Pritzker Park
The large patch of fenced off grass on State Street that used to be an open-air toilet for vagrants is rapidly being turned into Pritzker Park. Construction started back in the snowy (OK, “snowier”) months and for a long time seemed to involve nothing more than moving all the dirt into a big pile. These days, cement trucks are on the scene pouring the foundations for what will become seating areas and pathways. The plan...
