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!
reflections of a summer's day
I walked to the New York Public Library, one of 150 buildings on the favorites list of the American Institute of Architects, but it is undergoing extensive renovation and was cloaked in plastic and canvas. Not able to see except for the pair of lion statues at the massive front entrance.
So I wandered around Bryant Park and finally found a rocking chair–yes, a rocker, solid wood, comfy, on a patio in the park–where I spent an hour or two observing all the activity, writing in my journal, and dozing a bit. As I was leaving the park, I photographed this city and cloud reflection on the building on 42nd Street and 6th Avenue — the merging of city and nature.
According to an informational sign in the park on the architecture on the square, this is the Home Box Office Building designed in 1985 by Kohn Pedersen Fox.