Day 69: Union, IL (cont.)

Still in Union, IL / Visiting Chicago

We really lucked out with Chicago weather. It's been incredibly hot and sticky for the last week or so. Last night, a huge front moved through. Not much rain but very strong winds. Today, the highs were maybe 75 degrees.

It's a long trip, 30 minutes to the station and then 80 minutes on the train (not to mention that the train was pulling out as we arrived so we had to wait an hour for the next), but today we visited Chicago. We arrived at the Ogilvie Transportation Center at about 12:30 and went looking for a restaurant. We ate lunch at the House of Blues which is located what used to be the theater below the corncob buildings. When they were built, the corncob buildings (not their real name but it's the only thing that we've heard them called) were supposed to be a self contained city within the city.

After lunch, we followed the South side of the river down to Grant Park. Unfortunately, about 90% of Grant Park is closed while they prepare for Lollapalooza a couple of weeks from now. We did see this amazing building. We were told later that the porches are meant to represent waves and the flat areas are the Great Lakes.

We found our way over to Navy Pier and, after looking around a bit, caught one of the architectural boat cruises that we regretted not taking on our last visit to Chicago (Architecture is really what Chicago is all about).

Here's our boat, Iron Stan:

This is the new Trump Tower. It's right in the middle of things, on the river next to the Wrigley Building and it's the 2nd tallest building in Chicago (unless you ask the Donald, I'm sure).

The Wrigley Building:

The NBC Building is a much newer copy of NYC's 1 Rockefeller Plaza:

Many buildings have employed a mirrored exterior approach so that they reflect their environment. Several of the following pictures show this.

The same architect who designed the corncob towers also made this 2nd attempt at designing a city within the city. His plan was to have these all along the South fork of the Chicago River (he only built the one. Apparently, the footprint is S shaped with an atrium that runs down the middle of the S from one end to the other.

This building isn't much to look at but the way that it was built is very interesting. It's entirely over railroad right-of-ways. The taller part of the building on the right rear is built on pillars that were place between the tracks. The lower, closer part of the building is over a matrix of switches. There was no place that they could place a pillar. That part of the building is cantilevered off of the taller part of the building. It is actually hanging from that white steel frame that you can see up at the top.

We finally headed over to the Magnificent Mile and shared a wonderful deep dish pizza at Gino's East.

After walking back to the station, we caught the train and arrived back at the Trailer at 10 PM.

-J-