Chicago’s Vision of the City Beautiful
Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling to Chicago for the first time. We were there primarily to visit Sadaf’s family, but thankfully, we also found time to sight-see and enjoy just a little bit of all the city has to offer. After spending a few days with family, we devoted a sunny but wonderfully mild afternoon to going downtown. We took our time getting there, meandering through the tree covered residential streets in order to avoid the traffic on the highway. Passing through the neighborhoods of Logan Square and Avondale, Sadaf spotted the towering steeples of St. Hyacinth Basilica. Construction on this church began in 1917 and was completed four years later. It is the hub of the Polish Catholic community on Chicago’s northwest side and welcomes thousands of parishioners each week for separate masses delivered in English and Polish.
The towering red brick edifice, designed in the Classical Revival style, was the product of architectural firm Worthmann and Steinbach, who designed a number of other prominent and richly ornamented churches in and around Chicago.
The main entrance to the church features massive bronze doors that depict the history of St. Hyacinth and were designed by Czesław Dźwigaj, one of Poland’s most renowned sculptors.
After getting a few images of the church, we continued on to downtown to see several of Chicago’s most famous landmarks. We began in Millennium Park with a visit to Chicago’s iconic Bean. Actually, we began in Millennium Park with a trip to the restroom, and while Sadaf did that, I stood outside gawking at the soaring towers I found myself in the shadows of. Scanning the skyline, my eyes latched on to a familiar sight: the Carbide and Carbon Building. This Art Deco masterpiece was designed by two of Chicago’s most prominent architects, the Burnham Brothers, and was completed in 1929. While the facade looks black at a distance, it is actually covered with dark olive green terracotta tiles, ascending with near uniformity to the top of the tower, where it is accentuated with bronze and 24kt gold trim.
I was already intimately acquainted with this building through the work of Chris Hytha photographing Art Deco skyscrapers throughout the US. In a very nerdy way, seeing the Carbide and Carbon Building was like meeting a celebrity: instantly recognizable despite having only ever seen the building in photographs. Serendipitously, I had forgotten that the Carbide and Carbon Building was even in Chicago. I thought it was in New York City, but I realize now that I had confused it with another gilded Art Deco design: the American Radiator Building. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to photograph the Carbide and Carbon up close, but that just leaves something for me to look forward to with my next trip to Chicago. It may be a little premature, but I have already started scoping out roof top bars from which to photograph this stunning building.
We continued on to the Bean, where I tried desperately to find compositions without any people in them. The result of such effort was an abstract composition I actually like quite a bit.
Even though the plaza around the Bean just underwent construction—or maybe because of it—the surface of the sculpture was much dirtier than I had anticipated, given all the pictures I’ve seen with its mirrored finish looking flawless. Despite that, I still really enjoyed seeing the Bean and liked how the softness of its shape and brilliance of its surface contrasted with—but also reflected back—the rigid and stoic skyscrapers it was surrounded by.
After leaving the Bean, we strolled through Lurie Garden, a 2.5 acre botanic garden on the south end of Millennium Park. This was my favorite spot of the day, not least because I ended up getting some of my favorite photos from the entire trip here. The gardens were planted in a very haphazard arrangement, designed to look like a native habitat more than a manicured urban garden. The Rudbeckia and Echinacea were flowering profusely, which along with myriad other plants in various different life stages, made for such a rich variety of colors and textures in the garden. I am so happy to have these photos to look back on because it was such a rich sensory experience my mind could not possibly hold on to all the details the camera captured with effortless fidelity.
As we meandered through the gardens, clouds began to build to the west. Where the sun was able to peek through, it cast an absolutely gorgeous light on the gardens that I think gives these images an almost painterly quality. These are not just some of my favorite images from the trip but some of my favorite images that I’ve made in a long time.
With the clouds continuing to build, we walked on to Buckingham Fountain. The clouds darkened with a promise of rain, adding to the already dramatic scene of the immense fountain set in front of the soaring Chicago skyline. The fountain, which will be celebrating its centennial in a few years, is the visual focal point of Grant Park. The Chicago Park District has a great webpage for the fountain that describes the contested history of Grant Park which saw Aaron Montgomery Ward battle with Chicago’s architectural and city planning patriarch, Daniel Burnham, over the use of this prime land along the shore of Lake Michigan. Burnham, who is credited with much of the beautification efforts in the early planning of Chicago, wanted to construct the Field Museum in Grant Park, but Ward felt the land should be left open so as not to obstruct the views of the lake. I, for one, am thankful that Ward emerged from this conflict victorious. Grant Park offers a gracious respite from the hustle and bustle of the city just blocks away. It is a place to gather, to meander, to find solace in the company of wildflowers, to seek shelter beneath the boughs of American Elms. Grant Park, along with Maggie Daley and Millennium parks, offers open space from which to marvel at the engineering and industrious might of downtown and to get lost in the placid calm of Lake Michigan stretching to the horizon. The existence of these parks is a testament to the vision of Chicago’s city planners, an enduring affirmation that cities should be beautiful, built in service of its citizens, and a source of both invigoration and repose.
We ended the day walking along Michigan Avenue, which bounds Grant Park and Millennium Park on the west side. Going back to the earliest days of Chicago, Michigan Avenue marked the eastern-most edge where development was permitted. Because of this, many of Chicago’s historic buildings are lined up on the western side of the street, forming the Michigan Boulevard Historic District.
One of the buildings that continued to catch my attention along this stretch of Michigan Avenue was the Michigan Boulevard Building, which was completed in 1914. Architecturally, it looks cohesive with the taller, green pyramid topped Pittsfield Building, even though the Pittsfield was completed more than a decade later, and the two buildings are separated by North Garland Court. The Pittsfield was completed in 1927 and was the tallest building in Chicago when it was completed.
Just north of the Michigan Boulevard and Pittsfield buildings stands the Chicago Cultural Center, a Classical Revival building completed in 1897 to house the Chicago Public Library. As impressive as it looks outside, I regret not going inside. The interior is richly ornamented with imported marble, fine hardwoods and the largest Tiffany stained glass dome in the world.
Further done Michigan Avenue is the aforementioned Carbide and Carbon Building as well as another Art Deco gem, the Wrigley Building, both of which I am desperate to photograph again. I only saw a little sliver of the city, but what I saw, I loved immensely. Chicago is an architecture lover’s paradise, and I am already making plans for my next trip.
