Illinois - Chicago

Chicago


The first photo you would see as a visitor, the renowned "Sky's the Limit" installation by Michael Hayden, which connects O'Hare Airport Concourses B and C in Terminal 1.


See a little bit of the city from the southwest (Canal Street and Wells Street), or see it all from the north along Lake Michigan courtesy Lou Corsaro.


Some more skyline views, from Columbus Drive at Wacker Drive.


A. Finkl's steel company, which of course manufactured its own entry arch, is toward the south side of the city at 93rd Street and Kenwood Avenue.


On Lawrence Avenue, heading east at Sawyer Avenue.


The Merchandise Mart was the largest building in the world when it opened in 1930, with 4 million square feet of floor space. It was so large, it had its own ZIP code for decades.


The 1914 Reid, Murdoch, & Co. Building is two blocks east of the Merchandise Mart. It houses several companies, including those listed on the clock tower.


Go two more blocks and find the newer but arguably more iconic Marina City towers, along the Chicago River on State Street. It was supposed to be a self-contained islet to keep whites in downtown Chicago in the late 1950s, and basically combines everything necessary - parking, stores, recreation, and houses.


Keep going east, cross the river at Wabash Avenue, and find the 1927 "35 East Wacker." It's rare for such a brilliant building to have no name, but it's always been named for one of its inhabitants (first Pure Oil). The building originally had a car elevator for the entire first level (23 stories in all), allowing jewelers safe and immediate access to their offices. It's also a movie star, having played the Gotham City Courthouse in Batman Begins.


While I'm at the Wabash Avenue Bridge, here is some of the architectural detail at the Riverwalk entrance there, and then a second entrance at Clark Street. If you like bridge photos, check out the Roads page linked below.


Looking west along the Chicago River from the Michigan Avenue bridge, courtesy Lou Corsaro.


The Wrigley Building is on the northwest side of that bridge. Built in 1920, it's entirely related to the gum and the stadium. It stayed in the family for 91 years.


The famous Art Institute of Chicago is south on Michigan Avenue, inside the Loop (the overhead circle of elevated subways).


Speaking of the Loop, this is the Ogilvie Transportation Center, serving several elevated lines on the west side of the Loop above Washington Boulevard.


I didn't think that's what subways were for. Maybe this is just a subterranean passageway, courtesy Lou Corsaro.

See Chicago River's bridges
Explore Wacker Drive
See more of Chicago's roads
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