A Suburban Detour: Museums at Lisle Station Park
I have lived in Lisle my whole life and so I have grown up knowing the suburbs better than Chicago. But I did not know about the museums at Lisle Station Park until a neighbor invited me. I liked it so much that I decided to become a museum volunteer. This was six years ago. […]
A Tour of the Inside of Tribune Tower
Whenever I come downtown and walk up Michigan Avenue the Tribune Tower is rising above. Walking past the building, I would look into the showcase studio for WGN radio. Then, I’d admire the countless stones placed on the facade from around the world. This past Saturday, I got the very cool opportunity to go inside […]
The Department Store Window: An Architectural Marvel
A walk down State Street in downtown Chicago must inevitably the windows of this famed department store district. The Carson Pirie Scott Building, which we visit on the 1893 World’s Fair Tour, and Marshall Field’s – now Macy’s – which we visit on the Loop Interior Architecture Walking Tour, are a few of the many […]
The Chicago Picasso: Beginnings of Public Art in Chicago
It hard to walk past Daley Plaza and not catch a glimpse of Chicago Picasso. The colossal three dimension sculpture towers 50 feet into the sky above plaza. Some say it is a woman, a horse, or even a baboon. To locals of Chicago however, this sculpture is just the Picasso. (By the way, you […]
Rambling Around Rogers Park
Take a straight shot to the north edge of chicago to find Rogers Park, which has the eclectic mix of people you’d expect of a border town — except it’s a border neighborhood. Hop off the CTA red line at Morse and you are in Rogers Park; The Glenwood Avenue Arts District, to be exact. […]
Lost Chicago Drinking Poems
We lose things for all kinds of reasons – we’re absent minded, we drop them, or we just plain forget about them. One could make many cases for why drinking poems might get lost over time: 1. People were drunk when they wrote them, so they aren’t worth being remembered. 2. People got drunk after […]
Architecture at Decorators Supply
The title is just a joke. I had the rare opportunity to go on a private tour visit of the plaster-filled factory of Decorators Supply, a manufacturer of classical architectural details and significant figure in Chicago architectural history. They craft columns, pilasters, capitals, and a seemingly infinite list of ornaments out of plaster, wood, and […]
Group Urban Excursions (aka Private Tours)
2022 Update: We no longer offer public tours and have kept this post as a historical record of our role in innovating in travel and tourism. Lately we’ve been bombarded by interest in our private tours of Chicago, and it probably comes along with the surge in interest in unique experiences these days. (FYI, we […]
Answers About the Pedway
We get a lot of questions about the Chicago Pedway system our private tours of downtown. So here are some more in-depth responses. 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 […]
Been to Chicago’s Bronzeville Neighborhood?
Off the beaten path but still close to downtown, Bronzeville is a great place to learn more about our city. The four Chicago Community Areas of Grand Boulevard, Kenwood, Douglas, and Oakland comprise Bronzeville, which is historically known as the “Black Metropolis.” It served as the northern hub for the “Great Migration” of African Americans […]