Chicago, man.

Hey all,

Another missive from the last couple of days, this time spent getting to know Chicago.

Which, it turns out, is an interesting sorta place - there's a lot going on here, a lot of construction, lots of museums and galleries, lots of fun  to be had - and despite the fact that the metropolitan area of Chicago is enormous and sprawling (they sometimes call it 'Chicagoland', and it spills into three states), the downtown area is surprisingly compact - unlike Manhattan or San Francisco and even, in some ways, Boston, pretty much anywhere in the downtown area is walkable within, say, half an hour.Which is nice, given the concentration of cool stuff here.

So, yesterday morning was mostly spent walking around the place admiring the architecture. Seriously, from that standpoint, the whole of downtown Chicago is like an enormous museum. Again, I'm gonna do the comparison thing - unlike in Manhattan, where tall buildings are more or less a necessity (tiny little island, lots and lots of people), Chicago's skyscrapers seem to be more 'for their own sake', so to speak. What this means is that there's a lot more variety, a lot more adventurous buildings, and a lot of cutting edge stuff. More or less every super-famous architect has worked in this city, and it shows. Of course, adventurousness sometimes leads to utter failure (whose idea was it to paint a 50-odd storey skyscraper red?), but the successes are amazing.

Speaking of failure, sometimes Chicago developer types tend to overextend themselves, as was made plain to me yesterday morning. The Chicago Spire is a 2000 foot (approx 600 metre), twisting, corkscrew of an apartment building which will be the tallest structure in America. If it ever gets built. I guess the developers chose the wrong time to make a building targeted at uber-rich foreigners on the market for 3rd, 4th, 5th or whateverth homes. They started this thing, but as of right now, all construction has stopped. So, sitting on a vacant site near Lake Michigan is a hole in the ground. made of concrete, about 8 storeys deep and 30-odd metres across, it sits there today, surrounded by snow, with no clear future. Like I said, Chicago is a city that likes to take risks with its buildings.... Unfortunately, risks don't always pay off.

At any rate, yesterday was mostly spent walking around downtown, admiring the real-life architectural museum that is Chicago. The weather wasn't altogether pleasant however - the snow set in in earnest in the afternoon, so I retreated to the Chicago contemporary Photography Museum, which is small but rather excellent.

I talk about the snow like it's a bad thing, but actually it's quite fun being in a place where snow is nothing out of the ordinary. And while I'm only slowly developing the skills for coping in a snowy environment (particularly figuring out things like how to avoid getting your feet soaked by slush), on balance it's pretty and fun and quite a novelty.

So, after a snowbound day and an early evening yesterday, I got up this morning to a beautifully clear sky. It was time to cross off the number one thing on my 'Must-do in Chicago' list: Observation Decks. In fact, when I think about it, observation decks are close to the top of my 'must-do' list in every city I visit. Someone asked me recently what I liked so much about them, which set me to thinking. Certainly, part of it is a weird kind of completionism (I've been up 7 of the 25 tallest buildings in the world, and visited another 6). And part of it is because it's just plain pretty up there. But a big thing, I think, is that it gives you a different perspective on the city you're in - it can allow you to see the big picture. So often, you can walk around a city looking at what's around you, but at best, you're looking through the city - you get caught up in the details. But from up high, you can look out over or across the city - get a sense of its structure and scale, and a feel for the place as a whole. It's also a useful way of picking out landmarks and orienting yourself, which is useful when you do as much walking as  do.

Philosophizing aside, however, I have one word for the view from both the Sears Tower and John Hancock Tower - awesome. Sited at more or less opposite ends of downtown Chicago, the two buildings give you very different, but equally impressive view of the city - plus, the 99th floor of the Sears Tower is higher above the ground than I've ever been (while still attached to the ground - flying doesn't count). Got to that tower, for many years the tallest building in the world, just as it opened at 10 O'clock. Luckily, winter is off-season for tourists, so there was no line, and I went up with the first batch of the day. I got out to the John Hancock Building at about a quarter to 4, just in time to watch the sun go down and the lights come on across the city - a truly beautiful sight.

Well, that's about it from my last two days - I've got two more here in Chicago, then I start my long trip back home - only a week until I touch down back in Australia. hopefully I'll get a chance to update a couple more times between now and then.

'til then,

Jono