I went on a river tour this weekend in Chicago. I listened to the names of the architects, learned the differences between art deco, post modern, neoclassical, buildings referential to their surroundings and those not, anecdotes of moguls who wanted to sit higher and see farther than their competition. Yet in the end, all that my camera could see were Carl Sandburg’s Big Shoulders against the most beautiful sky since October. I reached up and loved my city.
An excerpt from Chicago:
. . . Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders . . .
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth . . .
Wonderful post, Pandora, about the nation’s greatest city! I know them’s fightin’ words around these parts, but no matter where I live, Chicago will always be my home.
In terms of architecture, many of you have no doubt seen the ads in the New Yorker for Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire, which will transform the city’s storied skyline completely, dwarfing even the Sears Tower. Take a look–what do you think?
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Nice photos PB.
Cognitive dissonance: I was just now reading about Chicago over here — So I go from riots against houses being sold to negroes, to starkly beautiful skyscapes. Turns my head around a bit.
Wow - what a perfect, puffy-cloud, blue-sky day for a river tour! And I’m glad you got to take it before that looming, glowing Calatrava pencil shoots incongruously into the skyline.
Looks rather like the Okhta Tower going up in St. Petersburg, A monstrosity, if you ask me, though thankfully it’s across the river from the historic city center. But still, blech.
I like the Calatrava drill bit, and can’t wait to see it once complete. The spiral, by its nature, will reflect and play with light in a spectacular fashion. More importantly, a Calatrava skyscraper contemporizes the founding and continuing dialog that Chicago has had with skyscrapers. I like it very much.
Great pictures.
The post that Modesto links is fascinating. I’m looking forward to reading Perlstein’s book this summer.
A great writer and a great photog. Sheesh!
skyscapes
“skyscraperscapes”?
Love this and have always wanted to do the Chicago Architectural Foundation boat tour.
I think the Calatrava building is quite amazing, although I will say the world of developers is as usual caught up once in a frenzy to build the tallest buildings. I think there is a certain point at which they are no longer human friendly or environmentally sensible - would you really live on floor 137? Apparently much of the top floors of these super skyscrapers such as the new tower in Dubai etc. (not Calatrava’s specifically) is totally redundant and entirely for show to exceed the height of the last tallest skyscraper. But they are indeed some of the most amazing engineering feats of our day. Calatrava is of course the master being both a genius engineer as well as genius architect.
The spiral creeps me out and facinates me at the same time. The shape is intriquing but the heigth and placement in the skyline seems garish and almost Babel-like. I agree with Stella, the 137th floor? And yet, I do love the daring.
#8 - it is interesting that in the suburbs they call the cute houses that they tear down and build up again in atrocious, oversized aberrations of houses: “scrapers.” Hence maybe the term “skyscapers” vs. “skyscrapers” is a more apt term.
A supervillain with the power of flight could perform skycapers.
wait, “perform” s/b “pull off”.