Private Lines and the World’s Fair

The first section of what would eventually become the ‘L’ opened in 1892. It ran above alleyways from Congress Street downtown to 39th Street on the South Side. Some of this original elevated track is still in use by the Green Line today. By the next year, the system was extended all the way down to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. This route became one of the most popular methods for reaching the fairground.

Like the massive transcontinental railroads of the 1800’s, the Southside ‘L’ was a private enterprise. In fact, most of the ‘L’ system was built by private companies. As our guests on the Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour have learned, constructing the ‘L’ was a very corrupt business. A shady tycoon named Charles Yerkes used graft and bribery to pave the way for his company to construct downtown’s Loop in the 1890’s.

Centralization and Public Takeover

By the 1920’s, the ‘L’ was a staple of the city’s infrastructure. A Tribune article from 1997 describes the early days of the ‘L’ as a system “…in which discounted fares are not grudgingly offered but enthusiastically marketed, conductors are positioned in each car to assist passengers and service is so frequent that stations are empty for only 15 seconds between rush-hour trains.” Customer service was such a priority that funeral trains could be commissioned. Some stations even had lifts for caskets.

The handful of companies that operated the ‘L’ were under financial strain, and ended up being consolidated in 1924. Samuel Insull, an electricity tycoon, bought out the four separate ‘L’ companies. Their lines and operations became part of a centralized corporation called the Chicago Rapid Transit Company. This cut out the cost of competition. It also made transfers and fare purchases easier for customers.

The arrangement limped along until 1947. The city of Chicago and state of Illinois combined the city’s transit systems into a new public agency: the Chicago Transit Authority. That agency remains the operator the ‘L’ to this day. Many route closures, expansions, and realignments have happened since, but the core of the system has remained largely the same since it was built over a century ago.

-Alex Bean, Office Manager and Tour Guide

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

City Social at 120 North LaSalle

Begin your Pedway pub crawl in this fine establishment at the Pedway’s western terminus, 120 North LaSalle. You probably know this building as the one with Roger Brown’s mosaic of Daedalus and Icarus right across the street from City Hall. The inference of the mosaic is a bit abstract to me, but it sure feels like some sort of message to the politicians.

Anyway, City Social is the classy sort of place where financial types from LaSalle Street mingle with the political fixers from City Hall and the Thompson Center. One presumes that many a bond sale has gone down in this joint. I’d recommend sampling one of their cocktails. Pricier, for sure, than some later drink stops on the Pedway pub crawl. But you’ll be sober enough to appreciate it at this point.

Latinicity at Block 37

Dive down into the Pedway at 120 North LaSalle and proceed through its City Hall and Daley Center segments. One presumes plenty of drinking goes on in those buildings, but none that has an official liquor license. After progressing past the Blue Line station you’ll be in Block 37. This shopping mall’s chaotic development history is one of the key stories we share on many custom private tours of downtown Chicago.

Hop into one of the elevators and zip up to Latinicity. A gargantuan food hall which serves delicious fare from all over Latin America, it also has a pretty kickin’ bar. There’s lots to choose from, but I’d definitely stay in and around the tequila/mezcal section of the menu. Indeed, their Oaxaca Old Fashioned just made my personal “to-drink” list. Be sure to check out the view of the Daley Center and Washington Street while enjoying your drinks. It’s the last of the outer world you’ll see for a while on this Pedway pub crawl.

Bonus bar: Simply Thalia in the Pedway level of Block 37 serves a mean martini alongside their signature sushi donut. On a Pedway pub crawl you’ve gotta pace yourself so add this to your itinerary at your own discretion.

InField’s at Marshall…Macy’s. I guess it’s at Macy’s.

Take the elevators back down to the Pedway and continue through the Red Line station. Follow the tunnels until you find yourself in a long hall along the north edge of the old Marshall Field’s. Just inside Field’s you will find InField’s, an ingeniously-named sports bar.

This little sports pub is a nice Pedway hiding spot. The seating is tucked away from passing foot traffic and scurrying Macy’s shoppers. So you can order a round of whatever looks good on tap, eyeball SportsCenter, and let the world roll by for a little while. A nice, chill spot at the halfway point of this Pedway pub crawl.

Bonus bar: Take the express elevator from the Pedway level up to the 7th floor for the Wine Bar at the Walnut Room, for a classier alternative to the sports bar aesthetic at InField’s.

MBar at Millennium Station

Keep roving past Macy’s until you feel the tingle of cold air in the Pedway. That means you’ve reached the t-junction below Michigan Avenue. Follow the signs for Millennium Station. Once you’ve fought through the stream of South Shore Line commuters, you can settle in for a drink at MBar. An old haunt from my Groupon days, MBar is probably the dive-iest of the stops on the Pedway pub crawl.

Which is, of course, its own sort of compliment. MBar has little of the pretense from earlier stops. The folks down here are just downing something while waiting for their train to come. In fact, I recommend making that part of the adventure here. Chat up your fellow barflies and see who is traveling farthest on the train after leaving the bar. Whomever in your group finds the furthest destination has their drink bought by the others.

BIG Bar at the Hyatt Regency

The directions for taking the Pedway from Millennium Station to the Hyatt Regency are too complicated to spell out here. Rely on your Pedway Map, trust your gut, bring carrier pigeons for when you’re lost, and you’ll be fine. Once you reach the Hyatt, sidle up to the BIG Bar, with its gorgeous view onto the river. Congrats, you’ve made it back into the outer world. Cheers to that.

BIG Bar gets its name from the claim that it’s the longest free-standing bar in North America. Which…is oddly specific. That should mean there’s plenty of space for you and your crew to relax in after a long Pedway pub crawl though. Plus, you can make others go through extraneous effort at this point. Bartenders here have to scale the “liquor tower” to retrieve bottles. Quite the spectacle to conclude with.

Enjoy your Pedway Pub Crawl Responsibly

Go have a good time on this Pedway pub crawl, but remember to be good guests along the way. Leave the SantaCon and TBOX shenanigans for Wrigleyville. After all, you’ll probably be commuting through these Pedway passages again in the future. You don’t want your regular route to the Metra to become a walk of shame.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

We research Chicago history and architecture like this while developing our live virtual events and custom corporate events. Join us for our public virtual events or book an exclusive team-building event for your private group. We can also create custom tours and original content creation about this Chicago topic and countless others.

The Lost Statues from the Old Board of Trade Building

One of the most curious artworks in Chicago sits in a plaza just east of the Board of Trade. A pair of 12-foot-tall granite statues stare out at Jackson Boulevard. As we related several years ago, these statues–representing agriculture and industry–originally stood on the facade of the original Board of Trade Building, which was constructed in 1883 and torn down in 1929

After that, the statues disappeared from the Loop. They were assumed lost forever, until the 1970s when they were found in an overgrown corner of the Forest Preserve of DuPage County. The full mysterious tale of the statues’ disappearance and eventual re-discovery can be recounted on our Downtown Bucket List tour for private groups.

Art Deco Architecture of the Chicago Board of Trade Building

Any visit to the Chicago Board of Trade has to include a healthy appreciation for its architecture. The 1930 design by Holabird and Root is a masterpiece of Art Deco design. Indeed, it takes up a sizable chunk of Art Deco Chicago. The pamphlet from the tower’s dedication perfectly captures the spirit of the building:

“Here it stands, completed, the Board of Trade Building, monarch of LaSalle Street, towering head and shoulder above its mighty neighbors, commanding focal point of Chicago’s financial heart.”

Visitors can fully appreciate the architecture from a block or two down LaSalle, let’s say at the intersection with Adams. From there one can fully grasp the overwhelming vertical nature of the design. The Board of Trade inevitably draws the eye upward, tracing a path into the endless Midwestern sky. Some of this is simply a reflection of the Art Deco ethos. The vertical piers, sudden setbacks, and dramatic nighttime lighting are all perfectly in tune with contemporary towers like New York’s Chrysler Building.

Ceres, Roman Goddess of Wheat and Queen of Chicago’s Skyline

One of the most famous elements of the Chicago skyline sits atop the Board of Trade. Up there, 605 feet above the street, Ceres, the Roman goddess of wheat, looks down upon the city. The statue’s sculptor, John Storrs, chose Ceres as a reference to the commodities trade in grain, which is what the Board of Trade grew rich and powerful on. Appropriately, Ceres holds a sheaf of wheat and a bag of corn.

To visit the Chicago Board of Trade’s most famous decorative element, you don’t need to scale the building though. A miniature version of Ceres is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago. Storrs helped support himself through the Great Depression by selling many of these small replicas to private art collectors.

Interestingly, Ceres also loomed above the original trading room on the fourth floor. The artist John W. Norton, who had studied at the Art Institute, painted a three-story mural of Ceres. Depicted bare-breasted, she holds another sheaf of wheat and sprinkles seeds. She now looks down upon the lobby of the Board of Trade’s rear addition.

Visit the Chicago Board of Trade Lobby

Any trip to the Financial District should include a visit to the Chicago Board of Trade lobby. Few other spaces can match its stunning streamlined luster. Gleaming marble piers, gilded bronze detail work, and an enormous wraparound light fixture transport you right back to 1930. Such glamour makes one want to wear a fedora and a snappy suit upon entering.

The symbolism hidden in the lobby is one of the highlights of our custom tours that visit the building , so I don’t want to spoil too much. I simply love that the food court in the basement is named Cellar’s Market. As a connoisseur of dad humor, that name is a  masterpiece.

No More Tours of the Trading Floor

Sadly, one can no longer visit the Trading Floor. The beating heart of Chicago’s commodities trade and financial markets now sits mostly silent. The ‘open outcry‘ method of trading, which once dominated the Trading Room on the fourth floor, has been almost entirely eclipsed by computer trading. While some trading at the CBOT still relies upon open outcry, the trading floor itself moved into an addition constructed in the 1990s. The old trading floor, whose massive 3-floor windows dominate the building’s base, is now quiet office space. Even the famous trading pits have been filled with concrete. You can delve into this vanished history by visiting the neighboring Money Museum.

The Heart of Nature’s Metropolis

The Board of Trade Building is a stunning testament to the businesses which built Chicago. The trade in grains, which evolved into the futures market and commodities trading, placed Chicago in the center of Midwestern commerce. No building better expresses this history.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

About Chicago Detours

In business since 2010, Chicago Detours is a passionate team of educators, historians and storytellers. We applied a decade of experience as one of Chicago’s top-rated tour companies to become a virtual event company in 2020. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact about Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through custom tours, content production, and virtual events.

As the inventor of the skyscraper, Jenney trained talented young minds who also made their mark on Chicago. He mentored famous architects like Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan, William Holabird, and Martin Roche. William LeBaron Jenney’s innovations and influences are vast, yet his work is somewhat overlooked these days. Even yours truly, a proud Chicago history and architecture geek, didn’t realize just how many Jenney buildings are still standing in Chicago. So I created a list of William LeBaron Jenney’s contributions to Chicago architecture that you can tour on your own. This quick walk is designed to give you a glimpse of Jenney’s genius and his lasting influence.

The Home Insurance Building

Our walking tour of William LeBaron Jenney’s work must begin, sadly, at the site of a landmark which is no longer standing. The Home Insurance Building, built in 1885 at Adams and LaSalle, was the world’s first skyscraper. Instead of relying on massive exterior walls, Jenney designed a spindly frame of fireproof steel and iron beams which bore much of this office tower’s weight. This engineering breakthrough allowed the building to rise higher, created more interior space and light, while weighing 1/3rd as much as a traditional tower and even adding extra fireproofing. It was truly a quantum leap breakthrough in architectural history.

Supposedly, Jenney’s inspiration came from seeing his wife set a book on a birdcage. The thin metallic bars could support the dense bookbinding, which inspired the idea that a skeleton frame of steel beams could support an office tower. Not everyone trusted Jenney’s work, though. The city actually shut down construction out of concern that the tower would inevitably collapse.

Th Home Insurance Building stood the test, of course, and everything from The Rookery to the Burj Khalifa is descended from the experimental design of William LeBaron Jenney. All of that said, sadly, the Home Insurance Building is no longer standing. A demolition crew knocked down the world’s first skyscraper in 1931. The site was cleared and the Field Building, a block-length Art Deco tower, was constructed in its place. Its beautiful lobby is worth a visit on its own, and you can pay a pilgrimage to a plaque in the lobby that marks the location of Jenney’s world-changing innovation.

The New York Life Insurance Building

Our William LeBaron Jenney walking tour continues a block north up LaSalle. Today’s Kimpton Gray Hotel occupies the New York Life Insurance Building, which William LeBaron Jenney designed back in 1894. Constructed less than a decade after the Home Insurance Building, it originally rose 12 stories above the LaSalle Street canyon, with two more stories added later. As its original name implies, the tower housed offices for Gotham-based insurance company. Like the Home Insurance Building a block away, Jenney’s tower helped consolidate LaSalle Street’s reputation as the heart of Chicago’s financial district. Jenney’s architecture conveyed wealth and power for the insurance company, which is why so many Downtown Bucket List private tours visit here.

The tower is one of the best extant examples of the Chicago School of architecture. Delicate Classical ornamentation in terra cotta adorns the facade, which is broken up into a tripartite design. Monumental gray limestone covers the base, lending the gravitas one expects from a financial institution. The bold vertical piers and horizontal bands express the steel frame which supports the structure. Unlike the Home Insurance, the New York Life Insurance Building narrowly avoided demolition. Indeed, the Kimpton poured millions into a restoration effort when they opened the Gray a few years back. It is as close as we can come to seeing Jenney’s original marvel.

The Manhattan Building

Heading down Dearborn from Monroe on this William LeBaron Jenney walking tour is a walk through skyscraper history which takes you to a pair of Jenney landmarks right on the southern rim of the Loop. The most immediately eye-catching is the magnificent Manhattan Building. Completed in 1891, this skyscraper was on the cutting edge of that era’s architectural and aesthetic revolution.

The building’s 16 floors are entirely supported by a skeleton frame of iron beams. At the time, the Manhattan soared several floors above any of its neighbors. Only Adler and Sullivan’s then-new Auditorium Building (which we visit on the 1893 World’s Fair Tour) leapt to such great heights.

Worth noting how breathtaking and anxiety-inducing a height like 16 stories felt like to people in the Gilded Age. Most homes back then were only 1 or 2 stories high and big commercial buildings of the Loop, like the Washington Block, were only 4 stories. For an architect like Jenney to triple a building’s height and do so with mere metal beams felt like the height of folly. One imagines that the Manhattan Building recalled the Tower of Babel for many a visitor to Chicago.

Jenney’s design incorporated multiple decorative materials (brick, granite, terra cotta) and ornate elements (projecting bays, classical decor, hidden faces) to break up the vertical facade. Even more importantly, Jenney’s exterior decor is arranged in horizontal, rather than vertical bands. This aesthetic choice distracted 19-century Chicagoans from the building’s gravity-defying height. That said, even these days the Manhattan dominates its corner, looming like a colossus above Printer’s Row.

Second Leiter Building

Our William LeBaron Jenney walking tour continues just two blocks east of the Manhattan with another of Jenney’s bold experiments in architectural form. The Leiter II Building, now the home of Robert Morris University, is an enormous steel-frame structure from 1891. Levi Leiter, Marshall Field’s original retail partner, commissioned the enormous building after a previous successful collaboration on the First Leiter Building.

Having a second shot at the unique challenges of a State Street department store, Leiter did not hesitate to pursue his vision. A cage of steel beams, rising eight floors, runs the entire 402-foot-long block. The exterior ornamentation is remarkably minimalistic for its time. Small capitals adorn the top of the piers, which separate its nine window bays, and colonnettes, which separate the window frames. Beyond that, a minimalistic cornice is the only other decoration breaking up the exterior’s pink granite cladding. The resulting structure is a boldly austere statement and a stark contrast with other department stores of that era.

Ludington Building

The last stop on our Jenney walking tour is a building I only learned of while researching this post. His Ludington Building, on Columbia College’s campus along Wabash in the South Loop, is a jaw-dropping masterpiece. The Ludington, built in 1889, is a two-fer of local architectural firsts. It’s both the oldest purely steel frame building and the earliest to be clad solely in terra cotta. The loft-style structure appears to float, angelic, in this formerly industrial neighborhood.

Jenney constructed the Ludington for the American Book Company, one of the old Printer’s Row mainstays. The loft-style construction suited their needs, namely printing presses and shipping spaces. That openness attracted later industrial tenants, like the auto supply company which used the Ludington as a warehouse until the 1990s. Columbia bought the newly-landmarked building in ’99, converting it into a chic post-industrial loft style that remains all the rage.

One can clearly see Jenney’s evolving aesthetics just by taking a glance at the Ludington. Perhaps because it didn’t soar as high, only 8 stories, the decor seems less tied to traditional elements. The creamy terra cotta uses classical forms, like candelabras, vines, and dentils. Yet those details are not emphasized on a Jenney walking tour. Instead, one’s eyes focuses upon the delicate interplay between wide-open windows and the bold framing of steel piers. I find it impossible not to see future landmarks like the Sullivan Center and Mies’ Federal Center lurking in Jenney’s experimental style.

A William LeBaron Jenney Walking Tour Through the Past

In writing this, I have found a deeper appreciation for Jenney’s role in Chicago’s architectural history. I’d long known his name and the significance of the Home Insurance Building, but it seemed like a one-off. I thought he’d overseen a world-changing breakthrough purely by chance and then shuffled away. Later names and thoughtless demolitions obscure his work. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Jenney’s aesthetics are perhaps not as fully developed or flashy as his successors, but they also had an advantage. Burnham, Sullivan and the rest stood on the shoulders of a giant named William LeBaron Jenney.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Chicago Improv

Our city’s most famous contribution to theatre history revolves around the Second City. The famous comedy club in Old Town has its roots in Hyde Park back in the ’50s. A group of UChicago students started performing commedia dell’arte shows in the Compass Bar on 55th Street. The Compass Players created highly-structured prompts and games which the performers improvised within, which became the touchstone of Chicago’s improv comedy scene. Helped along by some truly incredible talent, not least the world-famous duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, these young performers helped start The Second City and shaped 20th-century American comedy.

Tony-Winning Theatre Companies

No slight against our improv impresarios, but comedy clubs are not what people think they see “theatre” spelled with an re. For that sort of high culture, we look to our bevy of Tony-winning companies. The Steppenwolf, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare, and Lookingglass companies represent the biggest concentration of high-profile professional theatre outside Manhattan. No other city comes close to our collection of Regional Theatre Tony Awards.

Many of these companies occupy fascinating historical spaces. The Goodman sits in the beautifully revived Harris and Selwyn Theaters. Victory Gardens performs in the iconic Biograph Theater, where Dillinger met his end. Chicago Shakes, of course, performs in their fabulous Navy Pier venue, and Lookingglass calls the historic Water Works its home. Seeing shows at these fantastic spaces is also a trip into the history of Chicago’s theatre architecture.

Neighborhood Theatres

The Tony-winning heavyweights didn’t start out as Chicago theatre colossi, of course. With the exception of the Goodman, these companies began as storefront neighborhood theatres. “Off-Loop” theater companies sprang up throughout the city in the 1960s and ’70s. Inspired by the Compass Players, spurred to action by political and social unrest, and permitted to operate in small spaces for the first time thanks to relaxed building codes, suddenly small theaters were in every Chicago neighborhood. Non-profit theater companies like The Body Politic paved the way for the vibrant Off-Loop Chicago theatre that still exists.

These tiny theatrical companies, often operating on minimal budgets, are the beating heart of Chicago theatre. Often dedicated to esoteric, avant garde, or socially conscious causes, they offer abundant creative freedom. The 200 or so storefront companies also provide the most common starting point for Chicago’s theatrical talent. Actors, writers, designers and directors can cut their teeth and build their resumes in this thriving scene.

Experimental Theatre

Those tiny storefront theaters also represent another of Chicago’s major contributions to theatre history– experimental theatre. Mind-bending experimentation abounded in the 1960s and ’70s small companies, like when Organic Theatre Company mounted a “DIY sci-fi play” called Warp! in 1971. Chicago’s history with experimental theatre is way older than that though. Around the 1910s, Chicago was a center of the Little Theatre Movement, a rejection of the crass commercialism of more mainstream theatre at the time.

The legacy of the experimental theatre companies is carried on today by  The Neo-Futurists, a wildly successful experimental company in Andersonville. Founded back in 1988 and inspired by the Italian Futurist movement, the Neo-Futurists perform with reckless abandon. They embrace immediacy and energy, creating “[w]ork that embraces those unreached or unmoved by conventional theater – inspiring them to thought, feeling and action.”

Youth Theatre

Children’s theatre has a long history in Chicago too. It can trace its roots to the experimental theatre of the Little Theatre Movement in the Progressive Era. Alice Gerstenberg, a feminist playwright and active member of Chicago’s Little Theatre, established the Junior League Children’s Theater in 1921. Chicago children were treading the boards at Hull House around the same time too, with youth drama classes and performances an integral part of the settlement house’s services for Near West Side children.

Today, drama programs in Chicago schools continue the tradition, and community-based programs like the inimitable Albany Park Theater Project represent some of the best theatre in the city. As we detailed last year, our tour guides proudly donate 50% of their gratuities to support APTP. Their mission, bringing young people of every background together to create luminous and rich theatrical experiences. Their work perfectly dovetails with our own ethos. APTP is between shows right now, but we know that a new production is in the works. Can’t wait to see it and share it with the world.

Black Theatre

Black Chicagoans created a robust theatre scene in the Black Belt in the early twentieth century. The famed Pekin Theatre opened in 1905 as the country’s first black-owned and operated vaudeville theatre in the country. Later, black playwrights and actors used theatre to challenge segregation and inequality. Langston Hughes founded the Skyloft Players ensemble in 1941 as “a theater OF the people FOR the people BY the people.” In the 1970s, Chicago’s legacy of black theater was continued with the creation of the Black Ensemble Theater, located in Uptown. Founded by the inimitable Jackie Taylor, BE’s mission is “to eradicate racism and its damaging effects upon our society through the utilization of theater arts.” The Black Ensemble Theater’s shows are often jukebox musicals celebrating overlooked or under-appreciated black performers. Common consensus is that the shows are so joyful and entertaining that the audience is dancing by curtain call.

Celebrating Chicago Theatre History in 2019

The Year of Chicago Theatre affords a great opportunity to appreciate Chicago Theatre history. Sponsored by City Hall and the League of Chicago Theatres, it’s the first citywide theatre festival of its kind. Events include theatrical performances in all 77 community areas, plus major funding and visibility boosts for the city’s 200+ theaters and companies. Inevitably, these celebrations highlight just how much great theatrical work is done here. From the biggest Broadway in Chicago venues to the smallest indie storefronts, this is a town that puts on a great show. We might not have the Great White Way, but Chicago theatre can go toe-to-toe with any other toddling theatre town.

– Alex Bean and Marie Rowley

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Aries (March 21 – April 19) – Chicago’s Federal Center

Represented by the ram, people born under the sign Aries tend to be bold and ambitious, with no time for frivolous detail. Famous Aries Chicagoans typify their leadership skills, like Harold Washington, or their take-no-prisoners confidence, like Hugh Hefner. So it’s only fitting that the bold, striking Federal Center designed by another famous Chicago Aries, Mies van der Rohe, represents the ram in the Chicago architecture zodiac. The architecture of the Federal Center is straightforward, honest, and strong.

Taurus (April 20 – May 20) – Chicago Board of Trade

Tauruses are ambitious and focused on the future. They’re not afraid to roll up their sleeves and work hard to get what they want. It makes sense that one of Chicago’s most famous Tauruses is hizzoner Mayor Richard J. Daley, who dubbed Chicago “the city that works.”

The Chicago Board of Trade is a classic Taurus. Our biggest market is an appropriate setting for those bulls, eh And let us not forget Chicago’s cow town past with the Stock Yards and the meatpacking industry. The architecture of the Board of Trade Building represents the city’s relentless striving toward its lofty goals, just like a hard-working Taurus. While wheat and other crops pepper the architectural details of this skyscraper, the bulls of Taurus also fit in, since cattle and pigs were also on the commodities list of this iconic building.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20) – Marina City

Geminis are represented in the traditional zodiac by the twins, so it only makes sense for Chicago’s most iconic twins to be their emblem in the Chicago architecture zodiac. Marina City represents the Gemini in many ways though. These air signs are known to be pioneers, innovators and fearless thinkers. Famous Chicago Geminis include trailblazing women like Gwendolynn Brooks and Jane Addams.

Some of Downtown’s first residential skyscrapers, Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City twin towers paved the way for future developments, and shook up the architecture world with their iconoclastic organic forms, just like pioneering, free-thinking Geminis. On top of being a wild shape, these buildings were revolutionary for their use of reinforced concrete.

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)  – Harold Washington Library

Like the crab that represents them, Cancers may seem hard on the outside but are soft on the inside, harboring a nurturing and caring nature. On the Chicago architecture zodiac, the Cancer’s architectural counterpart has an imposing exterior, but many find the interior to be a personal sanctuary.

Like famous Chicago Cancer Ida B. Wells, the Harold Washington Library Center works for the uplift of all Chicagoans. It’s bright, white interiors and sweeping open architecture of the Winter Garden create a welcome place for learning. The architecture of the Harold Washington Library makes it a place to find community, compassion and empathy, qualities that define Cancers.

Leo (July 23 – August 22) – The Chicago Theatre

Leos are creative, passionate, and gifted leaders. One of the most famous Leos to call Chicago home is President Barack Obama. The fiery lion also has a theatrical side, and loves to be the center attention, so how could the Leo be anything but the iconic Chicago Theatre on our Chicago architecture zodiac?

With its splashy marquee capturing attention on State Street, the Chicago Theatre perfectly represents the Leo’s commanding stage presence and love of spectacle. This former cinema house is also adorned with lavish architectural details both inside and out, lending more to its Leo traits.

Virgo (August 23 – September 22) – The Rookery

Earthy Virgos are grounded, meticulous and practical. They are detail-oriented, and may also be prone to a bit of perfectionism. That matches up very nearly with the architecture of the Rookery, which melds the heavy, precisely-engineered early skyscraper aesthetics of Burnham and Root with Frank Lloyd Wright’s delicate, artistic lobby. Lead architect for this architectural landmark, Daniel Burnham, was himself a Virgo. Frank Lloyd Wright’s modern lines and the rational balance of this architectural space just screams “Virgo.” Amanda, the founder of Chicago Detours, is a Virgo, and perhaps her grounded nature has contributed to building this tour company, in business since 2010.

Libra (September 23 – October 22) – The Hancock Center

An air sign, Libras are the intellectuals of the zodiac, with a keen eye for aesthetics. Represented by the scales, they seek balance and equilibrium in their work and life. Famous Chicago Libra William Le Baron Jenney put his intellect to work creating the world’s first skyscrapers, creating architectural marvels of balance, simplicity and harmony.

The larger-than-life architecture of the Hancock Center perfectly captures Jenney’s legacy and represents the Libra on the Chicago architecture zodiac. Its soaring height reflects Libra’s airy intellectualism, and its iconic X-shaped steel frame creates a perfect symmetry. Additionally, instead of getting bogged down in the details, Libra likes to view the world from above, and of course you can consider all the little architecture of Chicago from the vantage point of the 360 Chicago Observation Deck.

Scorpio (October 23 – November 21) – Aqua

Scorpios are a water sign, tapped into the psychic and emotional sides of our natures. Famous Chicago Scorpio Mahalia Jackson was known for her powerful voice, and Scorpios are known for being passionate and strong. They’re also the most enigmatic and seductive members of the zodiac.

There’s no better architectural fit on the Chicago architecture zodiac for Scorpio than the Aqua Tower – our most sensual of skyscrapers. The rippling curves of Jeanne Gang‘s famous tower fascinate and beguile us, just like the mysterious charms of the Scorpio. Gang meticulously engineered these curves for a functional reason, and you’ll have to come on a custom tour of downtown to find out how! On a purely aesthetic level though, the architecture of this famous skyscraper is clearly the spirit of a water sign like Scorpio.

Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21) – Tribune Tower

Sagittarians are well-traveled, full of interesting anecdotes from their journeys, and always on the hunt for more stories. Like Sagittarian Rahm Emanuel, they’re gifted speakers who can definitely spin a yarn. They’re interesting and adventurous, and can also be prone to showing off a bit, as we all know he does.

If that’s not the spirit of the architecture of the Tribune Tower, then I don’t even know why we’re playing this game! Studded with stones from Tribune reporters’ journeys, it encapsulates the Sagittarian’s quest for knowledge and love of a good story. The facade of this 1920s skyscraper is an architectural relic museum of the world. And its ornate Neo-Gothic exterior hints at a tendency to embellish as well.

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19) – Sears Tower

Capricorns are driven, focused, and have a committed passion for reaching their goals. Their relentless pursuit can come across as cold and make them seem conservative, but they do have a playful side too.
That sounds an awful lot like the Sears Tower.

Its simple steel-and-glass construction and record-breaking height reflect practical, business-minded concerns. The asymmetrical bundled-tube design, like an uneven stack of boxes, shows off just a hint of humor behind this most business-like of modern skyscrapers though. The tower’s engineer tried shaking some cigarettes out of a pack and, EUREKA, that’s now the shape of the Sears Tower.

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18) – Thompson Center

Aquarians are big thinkers and tend to go against the grain. A famous Chicago Aquarian is Oprah, who forged her own path in typical Aquarius style. Aquarians are also eccentric, offbeat and nonconformist. Hence the whole Age of Aquarius thing in the late ’60s.

Aha! The gloriously idealistic and sadly incompetent Thompson Center sounds like the right fit for the architectural equivalent of Aquarius. The Thompson Center’s colorful design, awe-inspiring atrium and  round glass exterior all mark it as a totally distinct Postmodern creation. Quite distinct from its nearby governmental neighbors, to put it mildly. It is truly the weird, rebellious Aquarius of the Chicago architecture zodiac.

Pisces (February 19 – March 20) – Union Station

Symbolized by two fish swimming away from each other, Pisces always has a foot in two worlds. They always need to be reminded to come back down to earth, since they’re some of the most dreamy members of the zodiac.  The City of Chicago is itself a Pisces, “born” March 4, and in many ways it represents that hopeless dreamer.

Ya know what We think that also describes the architecture of Chicago Union Station. The architecture here is a glorious dream of what an intercity rail station could be. Its soaring, Classical grand hall contrasts harshly with the gritty, diesel fume-filled platforms below. One level represents the romantic fantasy of a historic train station, the other, the grounded reality, capturing the duality at the heart of Pisces’ nature. For some, the train station is whisking you off to a new adventure. And for others, walking through this grand architecture is a mundane task of commuting to and from downtown Chicago.

Hope you had some fun discovering your Chicago architecture zodiac!

– Marie Rowley, Amanda Scotese, and Alex Bean

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.

We research stories from Chicago history, architecture and culture like this while developing our live virtual tours, in-person private tours, and custom content for corporate events. You can join us to experience Chicago’s stories in-person or online. We can also create custom tours and original content about this Chicago topic and countless others.

Make No Little Plans

The origins of the Chicago mega-development stretch back to the late 1800s. As Chicago rebuilt from the Great Fire young hotshot architects flocked to the city. Within just a few years, William LeBaron Jenney, Dankmar Adler, Louis Sullivan, John Wellborn Root, and, of course, Daniel Burnham set up shop in the boomtown of the prairie. These architects reimagined the possibilities of architectural form with the skyscraper, which only whetted their appetite. Burnham especially saw the opportunity to remake what an industrial American city could look and feel like.

He oversaw the design and construction of the famous White City in 1893, which heralded Chicago’s arrival as a major world city. Burnham parlayed this success into a secondary career as a city planner. He exported his “City Beautiful” aesthetics into the new city plans for Manila, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Eventually, he turned his eye for grand Beaux Arts urban planning back on his hometown.

The famous Burnham Plan of Chicago reimagined the dusky, brawling industrial boomtown as a Paris on the prairies. Iconic elements of the cityscape like Grant Park, Museum Campus, Navy Pier, Wacker Drive and the Mag Mile are the legacy of Burnham’s plan. His sweeping vision, made famous by the (non!) apocryphal adage “make no little plans,” encouraged later developers to similarly monumental ambitions, perhaps seeding the idea for the instant neighborhoods of mega-developments like Lincoln Yards.

Bringing Residents Back to Downtown

The second Mayor Daley’s 21 years in office provides a more direct historical antecedent to today’s massive mega-developments. By the 1960s, suburbanization and the rise of TV culture meant that the Loop emptied out by 6pm. So the Daley Administration orchestrated residential redevelopments of old industrial spaces in and around the Loop.

The first neighborhood that City Hall redeveloped was the South Loop. Long a warren of factories, warehouses, and train depots, the South Loop offered a wealth of real estate which was suddenly available when the train lines went belly up. Station closures left hundreds of acres of empty train yards in the South Loop. The first mega-development to swoop in on this territory was Dearborn Park. The residential development stretches for a mile south of the rehabbed station, plopping an enormous amount of housing stock into an area which hadn’t seen it in over a century. We can visit the area on our private tours of downtown.

Similar residential or mixed-use redevelopments of old train yards soon sprang into action around downtown. Sale of air rights turned the old Illinois Central depot just east of Michigan Avenue into the Illinois Center and Lakeshore East. The Grand Central and Van Buren train yards had patchwork developments, most notably River City and the Roosevelt Collection. River North’s old harbor district, east of Michigan Avenue on the north bank, became Cityfront Center. The ground of Central Station, just west of Museum Campus and south of Grant Park, into a new neighborhood of highrises and lofts named Central Station. Mayor Daley even moved into a condo there in the early 90s. Our guests see almost all of these developments on our private tours of downtown or Chicago neighborhoods.

Rebuilding in the Heart of the Loop

Mega-projects are not just limited to old industrial districts, of course. Enchanted by Modernism’s glittering glass towers and seduced by the dreams of urban planners who rather hated urban spaces, City Hall decided that the historic heart of the Loop had to go. Historic structures like Louis Sullivan’s Stock Exchange and the enormous Sherman and Morrison Hotels met the wrecking ball in the ’60s and ’70s.

Apparently unsatisfied going one building at a time, the city sometimes demolished entire blocks of buildings in those years. Today’s Daley Center plaza used to be a dense collection of old buildings, including the beloved restaurant Henrici’s. City planners condemned and cleared them all to build Mayor Daley’s new Civic Center, which eventually bore his name. Across Dearborn Street, the city spent over a decade buying up every structure on Block 37, including the landmarked McCarthy Building. They all came down in 1989, leaving a gaping hole on the site for 20 years.

Bad as that sounds, it was nearly worse. City Hall created a North Loop Redevelopment District in 1973. In essence, they declared everything north of Washington and east of Clark to be a slum. Developers floated plans to demolish virtually everything and replace it with a set of interlocking towers, sky bridges, and pedways ala the Illinois Center. Thank goodness it never came to pass. Imagine no Marshall Field’s on State Street or no glittering Tiffany dome at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The Debate Over Mega-Development Today

Big as these past projects were, the current building boom may outpace them all. Virtually all real estate along the North and South Branches of the Chicago River is being converted. The biggest break with the past is how privatized this phase of construction is. Under the Daleys, the city usually took the lead in clearing old structures and guiding redevelopment. These days such work is done by private developers like Sterling Bay and Related Midwest. All they need is occasional green lights from City Hall to remake Chicago as they see fit.

Mega-projects like Lincoln Yards and The 78 almost always create opposition, but the privatization of the process changes that dynamic. Sterling Bay and Related Midwest are not responsible to the people of Chicago, but to their shareholders. Thus, they have less incentive to listen to the communities being disrupted or hew to the extant cityscape. Despite this, they’re getting hundreds of millions in taxpayer money to fund construction. So far, that’s meant these big plans are meeting unprecedentedly big opposition.

– Alex Bean, Content Manager and Tour Guide

ABOUT CHICAGO DETOURS

Chicago Detours is a boutique tour company passionate about connecting people to places and each other through the power of storytelling. We bring curious people to explore, learn and interact with Chicago’s history, architecture and culture through in-person private group tours, content production, and virtual tours.