Michigan Avenue in Chicago's Loop
Though I don’t have the urban backbone to live in Chicago – I lived on the near North Side for three years in the late 70s and know that as a true fact – I love visiting the city a few times each year, preferably once each season. On our winter visit, we explored Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park. I took this photograph standing on the stairs that lead into the Art Institute, shooting north up the avenue. The snow cover and chilly temperature added to the overall experience.
I liked how only part of the diamond top of the Smurfit-Stone Building was snow covered. I love that building, and I love its name. I always think I’m going to see little blue cartoon characters hanging around the lobby, but no, so far there have been no Papa Smurf sightings!
Millennium Park
We went on a quick trip to Chicago to take care of some family business, and squeezed in a trip to the Loop and Millennium Park. This was my first opportunity to photograph “The Bean” as Anish Kapoor’s stainless steel sculpture is fondly nicknamed. The official name of the abstract distortion sculpture is Cloud Gate.
As is typical for January, it was cloudy and cold – perfect weather for ice skating, but not such perfect for prowling the lakefront, scouting for the best angle to photograph this enticing work of art. I loved how part of the sculpture was snow covered, and how the cloudy skies reflected a gray and threatening feeling, and I was able to capture that in a short photo shoot. But truly, this sculpture is the kind of thing that would be fun to spend half a day admiring and photographing, and so I will return. I didn’t get close enough to explore it in depth, but I did read that you can actually walk underneath. I’ll definitely check it out the next time we’re in Chicago.
Streeterville Neighborhood in Chicago
I visited Chicago and walked the streets where I once I lived when I was in my twenties, where I studied and played, before I made my escape to Wisconsin. This is a view taken from Northwestern University’s downtown campus. Lake Shore Park, in the foreground, was the spot for 16 inch softball games after classes.
Water Tower Place and the John Hancock Center loom in the background. I was near the Water Tower building the day a concrete panel fell from the side of the building. Just glad I wasn’t too close when the building started shedding hard rock!