magnificent geekery in chicago (vi)

|
Coming back from Stickney, I tried to take a pic of the city rising out of the haze. It looked way better than this IRL, and even better than this at night. Alas! This is the best you'll get:



Then I swung by Grant Park for a look. This is a view of Soldier Field with part of the Loop in the background:



This is the Loop seen from the south end of Grant Park:



This is Shedd Aquarium, home of sharks and moray eels and whirling schools o' fish! I have to admit, this is totally not what I expected. I expected a much more squareish, modern building with a lot of glass sitting on a big parking lot. This is like... what I'd imagine an art museum to look like! Sadly, I didn't have time to go inside :[



After I dropped by Shedd, I went toward the Planetarium:



Adler actually sits on this long man-made peninsula thing, so you can walk down to the lake's edge for a look. This is looking out toward the open waters (or ice):



And these two pics are the Chicago skyline from Adler --





Oh and yeah. That shit is ICE. ALL ICE. I will have you know, my fingers almost froze off taking those pics. SO. FUCKING. COLD. And I couldn't wear gloves either, or else the touchscreen didn't sense anything! Agh!

After Adler, I ducked back into my rental car and headed for Millennium Park. I passed this giant, impressive-looking museum, the identity of which I remain uncertain of:



These residential towers overlook the museum-ish area of Grant Park. Very, very impressive. If Danicka ever wants to move...



Eventually, I made my way over the Millennium park. The streets are slightly confusing there, so after a few block-circlings I parked and got out to walk around. It turned out I was actually across a major street from Millennium Park, but it was all good because that let me get a shot of the north end of Grant Park, looking south --



Yay, ice skating :]

Then I got to go over a seriously awesome bridge. This is BP bridge. I could almost forgive them the massive oil spill for giving us this gorgeous work of art. I wish I could take pics that better encompasses what it looks like. It's like this huge, futuristic, organometallic sweep of architecture that takes you from Grant Park to Grant Park's newest addition. It sort of rises right out of the ground, sweeping back and forth a few times before soaring across the eight or ten lanes of the boulevard. It's also made of the same materials, and with the same overall design principle, as the main stage of the Pritzker Pavilion just behind it. So when you're standing on the east side looking west, the curving lines of the bridge really just flow across to the Pavilion, and up into the rising lines of the city.



When you're about halfway across, you can look along the side of the bridge proper. Pritzker Pavilion is on the other side, and the Loop behind it --



On the other side, the sheer size of the Pritzker Pavilion is hard to really sense in this picture. When it's empty and covered in snow, there are really no visual references. Take a look at this pic, though, to get a sense of how huge it really is! -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pano-chicago.jpg

Okay. Next post: Millennium Park, Bronzeville, and more!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damon, that museum-looking building looks suspiciously like the Chicago Art Institute to me.

I may have a few pics on my facebook, but I'm not sure.

Also, how come no pics of the huge shiny ass bean in millennium park?

-Tempest

Anonymous said...

Correction! That is the Field Museum.

Great exhibits. When I went last, they had a bunch of ancient Mayan and Aztec artifacts on display. Time before that? King Tut, of course.

You can find Sue the T-Rex in there, too I think.

Damon said...

The Bean's in the next post!

Post a Comment