Lee’s World
Chicago October 2007
After a
few days in California, including a trip to Disney, a tour of the Gamble
House, Pasadena and a crawl through the undergrowth to get a decent view of
Frank Lloyd Wright's "La Miniatura" (Millard House), Pasadena, Mark and I
headed to Chicago.
We stayed a few nights at the Marriott, Schaumberg, before three nights in a suite at the Belden Stratford Hotel, with a fabulous lake view. The hotel was built in around 1920 and is a historic landmark overlooking Lincoln Park. It was very comfortable and worth considering in comparison to the large chain hotels in the city centre.
High on our agenda for the visit was to fully explore the architecture of the city - Mies van der Rohe had been instrumental in the city's development when he was based in Chicago; Frank Lloyd Wright also started his career in the city. With these two in town, Chicago makes its architecture a tourist treat with very interesting tours run by the Chicago Architectural Foundation.
We spent the
first day
in Oak Park at the Lloyd Wright home and studio and his
"jewel box" Unity
Temple as well as viewing about thirty homes by the great man in Oak Park
and River Forest. What a way to start a trip! Later in the trip we also managed to fit in tours of the Robie House and his Charnley House.
For any Lloyd Wright fan, a walk around Oak Park is a must.
Mies van der
Rohe's classic glass box, the Farnsworth House, is about 75 miles cross
country from Chicago. It was well worth the drive - a walk through the
forest leads you to the site. To think that
this
house was built in the 1950s, and that van der Rohe was building condo
towers is amazing, and you can only imagine the excitement of living in one
of those places at the time in what was so modern and new. I suspect it's
fairly exciting now, looking out of your Mies' designed condo on the Chicago
skyline.
We completed two
tours with the Chicago Architectural Foundation - their highlights by bus
tour, which was only disappointing by the weather and that we could not get
access to the Rookery (we went back a couple of days later to see the Lloyd
Wright interior), and the Architectural River Cruise. The latter was
probably the better one, but this was mainly because of the guide who really
knew her stuff.
Another highlight was a quick trip to see Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavillion and the Anish Kapoor Ghost Cloud in the Millenium Park.
The rest of the trip was spent shopping on Michigan Avenue, exploring the Prairie District, Graceland Cemetery, admiring the view from the top of the Sears Tower, and a trip to see the musical "Altar Boyz".
Chicago is a town I will definitely return to - in six nights we only scratched the surface.