Chicago is an exhilarating city. Waking up every morning on the 33rd floor of the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile with the sun rising over Lake Michigan for a few days during the Tauck-Ken Burns Chicago Event was a rare pleasure.
To watch the changing moods of the city, from bright sunshine reflecting off the lake in the morning to those moments when the clouds envelope the tops of Chicago's tallest skyscrapers was to see the many subtle nuances of mood of this magnificent city.
"Chicago is the great American city," wrote Norman Mailer. "New York is a world capital. Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic. San Francisco is a lady…. But Chicago is a great American city…"
The recent Tauck-Ken Burns Chicago event called the city "The most American of cities," and it wears the title well.
There is so much to do and see in Chicago it seems only those who live there could possibly have the opportunity to do very much of it. Here are a few reasons why Chicago is the Great American City and why it's an essential place to visit.
Architecture is probably the greatest of Chicago's marvels. Notwithstanding the great New York skyline, it was actually Chicago where the high rise steel-frame building originated. The first skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Company in Chicago built in 1885.
An accident of history made Chicago the site of the first skyscrapers. The Chicago Fire of 1871 gutted downtown Chicago, wiping out the many wooden buildings that then populated the central business district.
The fire department, weary from fighting a large fire the day before, were first dispatched to the wrong location, allowing the blaze to get out of control. It burned for two days and it was only the coming of rain that finally ended the fire. By the time it was over, 300 people were dead and 100,000 were homeless.
The razed center of one of the most vibrant and fastest growing cities in the world created a blank slate for architects, who practically swarmed to the city to make their mark on the new skyline.
The Rand McNally building that was built in 1889 in Chicago was the first all-steel framed skyscraper. Today Chicago is a showcase of great architecture from its skyscrapers to its many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. The Sears Tower, now renamed the Willis Tower, was the tallest building in the world from 1974-1998, until it was superceded by the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and remained the tallest building in the U.S. until One World Trade Center was completed in 2013.
Other architectural milestones include the Wrigley Building, the John Hancock Center and the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
The Chicago Architecture Foundation offers cruises on the Chicago River through the center of Chicago where many of the city's architectural monuments can be seen. The cruises are led by architecture lovers who explain the historical and structural details of the buildings.
The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the world's great museums and has in particular one of the great collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. The collection includes Seurat's pointillist Sunday en La Grande Jatte, and notable paintings by Renoir, Gauguin, Chagall, Toulouse Lautrec, Dali, Braques, Cezanne, Monet, Matisse, Degas, Mondrian, Picasso and Van Gogh.
The Art Institute also has collections of American painters, Indian Art of the Americas, architecture and design, photography and African art.
Lake Shore Drive. Chicago is a great driving city and there are many great places to drive. One of the best drives is along Lake Shore Drive with Lake Michigan on one side and the city center on the other. Starting from the uptown area by Lincoln Park a drive south on Lake Shore Drive will take you past the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Chicago Museum, the Near North Side, Streeterville, the Loop, Millennium Park, Grant Park, the Museum Campus, and you might just want to stop there and visit one of the many museums, which include the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum.
The Chicago History Museum is a treasure trove of Chicago history with a great deal of memorabilia for anyone who wants to immerse oneself in the Chicago of eras past. Current exhibits include Vivian Maier's Chicago; The 1968 Exhibit; Chicago Styled - Fashioning the Magnificent Mile; Unexpected Chicago; Lincoln's Chicago; and Chicago - Crossroads of America.
Berghoff Cafe is the oldest pub in Chicago with the Number One Food and Beverage License. It's also a beautifully decorated vintage space, with lovely paintings on the wood paneled walls, stained glass windows, elaborate chandeliers, spiffily dressed wait staff and excellent Midwestern American cuisine. Downstairs is the old Speakeasy
The Magnificent Mile is the walk along Michigan Avenue in Downtown Chicago from the Chicago River to Oak Street on the Near North Side. This walk is one of the great Chicago Experiences, a lively section of colorful shops and department stores and some of the city's most notable buildings, including the John Hancock Center, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, Water Tower Place and many of Chicago's top hotels, such as the Drake, the InterContinental, the Ritz Carlton and the Allerton Hotel.
Oak Park is not only the neighborhood where Ernest Hemingway grew up, it is also where Frank Lloyd Wright built his own home and many other homes that can still be seen as well.
The Museum of Science and Industry offers a mind-bending encounter with technology and science. The exhibits are specially designed to appeal to all ages. Current exhibits include Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives; Numbers in Nature - A Mirror Maze; and Future Energy Chicago.
Rush Street is a good center for Chicago Night Life. It's only a block over from the Magnificent Mile and though not as much of a center of nightclubs as it used to be, it is still a center for many great restaurants.
Chicago Blues. Chicago was the destination of the Great Migration of free African Americans who moved north from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. The Delta Blues from down south evolved in its new urban setting into a new hybrid that became known as Chicago Blues. Today the blues tradition still lives in Chicago. Some of the best blues clubs can be found near each other in Lincoln Park, including Kingston Mines at 2548 Halsted St. and B.L.U.E.S at 2519 Halsted St. Other notable blues clubs are Blue Chicago (536 N. Clark St.), House of Blues (329 N. Dearborn St.) and Buddy Guy's Legends (700 S. Wabash).
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