Chicago-esque – Page 9 – B12 Solipsism

CTA Unaware of Its Photography Policy

June 2, 2011June 2, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

The Chicago Transit Authority apparently does not ensure that its own employees are aware of CTA photography policy, which reads:

The general public is permitted to use hand-held cameras to take photographs, capture digital images, and videotape within public areas of CTA stations and transit vehicles for personal, non-commercial use.

Large cameras, photo or video equipment, or ancillary equipment such as lighting, tripods, cables, etc. are prohibited (except in instances where commercial and professional photographers enter into contractual agreements with CTA).

All photographers and videographers are prohibited from entering, photographing, or videotaping non-public areas of the CTA’s transit system.

All photographers and videographers are prohibited from impeding customer traffic flow, obstructing transit operations, interfering with customers, blocking doors or stairs, and affecting the safety of CTA, its employees, or customers. All photographers and videographers must fully and immediately comply with any requests, directions, or instructions of CTA personnel related to safety concerns.

For everyone’s safety, do not use a camera’s flash if facing a person who is operating a train or bus.

Be respectful of others – CTA customers and employees.

Don’t stand (or cause others to stand) in the way of stairs, aisles, escalators or doorways.

Be careful! Your safety is very important to us, so stay away from platform edges and moving vehicles.

Be safe! Don’t inch backward with your camera to get a wider view – always look where you’re going.

While on CTA premises, all photographers and videographers must comply with all applicable rules, including but not limited to, this policy, all applicable laws, ordinances, municipal regulations, standard operating procedures, and administrative procedures. CTA personnel may evaluate the actions of a photographer or a videographer, and if a determination is made that the actions of a photographer or videographer are not in compliance with any applicable rule, CTA personnel may terminate the permission granted by this policy.

CTA facilities and vehicles are for the exclusive use of the CTA, its employees, and its customers. Any and all permission granted to photograph and videotape in connection with this policy is subordinate to the CTA’s obligations to its customers, employees and to the general public. Loitering at CTA stations for extended periods for the purpose of taking photographs or video is prohibited.

(click here to continue reading Photography & Video Policy | CTA.)

Geoff mentioned (on Facebook) that he was told not to photograph in the El during his recent visit here:

I got hassled in Chicago because I took a photo in the subway station.

…The employee who accosted me said “We just took another tourist in the back for an hour. Please don’t make us do it again.” Do they really detain people?

I doubt very much the CTA even has a back room they use to browbeat tourists, but who would want to risk it?

This isn’t a new problem, but sadly, it keeps occurring. Olivia Leigh wrote about her experience with CTA harassment for the Chicagoist, back in 2007:

Take a quick look through Flickr, and you’ll see that the CTA is one of the most popular subjects for photographers’ lenses. Interesting architecture, intriguing people, and a nice dose of urban decay all beg to be photographed. We were similarly inspired last weekend while waiting for a brown line train at the Belmont “L” stop. After taking a photo of the view toward the end of the platform, and two snapshots of a glimpse down Belmont in between train cars, we were approached by a CTA employee who told me that us to stop taking photographs, as they were not allowed. We politely said we would stop, but we believed he was incorrect about the photography policy. His tone turned gruff quite quickly, and he said, “I know the rules. You can’t take pictures here. I work for the CTA.” We once again politely stated said that we understood, but said I did not believe that was the policy. The employee then said, “I could send you to jail for taking these pictures, so stop arguing with me!”

…We also asked Gaffney¹ for her recommendations for photographers who encounter harassment while photographing the CTA. She replied that the “customer should ask for a supervisor or contact customer service if the employee does not know the procedures regarding photography. Additionally, if photographers “encounter an employee who is not as well versed in the policy as he or she should be…photographers should report the location, date, time and employee id # (if possible) to CTA customer service so that the employee can be retrained.” After hearing of an employee threatening to take a camera from a photographer, we asked if employees would ever have the recourse to seize cameras. Gaffney replied that employees “should not take any cameras,” and instead should notify the control center to call the police if there is “suspicious behavior” (so perhaps we could have gone to jail?).

If you think this sounds a trifle confusing, you’re not alone. While we applaud the CTA for never proposing a ban on photography, unlike some other major metropolitan transportation services, the policy is extremely vague, left to the subjective views of CTA employees who may not be properly trained on identifying suspicious behavior. Gaffney noted that people “take photographs all the time without incident”; however, the number of people who have had difficulties, nearly all of whom we would venture to guess are merely photography enthusiasts, are not insignificant.

(click here to continue reading Getting to the Bottom of the CTA Photography Policy: Chicagoist.)

The CTA system has a great attraction for photographers, both tourists, and residents. The tracks, trains, buses and stations define the city, both good and bad, and it is a shame that the CTA employees are giving the city a bad name by being jerks. For the record, I’ve taken hundreds² of photos of various aspects of the CTA infrastructure and employees/passengers, and have not yet gotten more than a dirty look or two. I guess my time will come, eventually, we’ll see what happens when employees are contradicted by facts. They are not always pleased.

Footnotes:

CTA Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Noelle Gaffney [↩]
or more – after a while, hard to keep track [↩]

HIstorical Chicago Rainy Season Continues

May 31, 2011May 31, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

I knew it was a moist year, the wettest since I’ve lived in these parts, and Tom Skilling concurs:

To date, 2011 has been a very wet year in Chicago and current high water levels in area rivers and streams attest to that. Since January 1, total precipitation (rain plus the water content of snow and sleet) as measured officially at O’Hare International Airport stands at 19.15 inches. That is 6.06 inches above the long-term normal of 13.09 inches and it ranks 2011 among the wettest four percent of all years in the January 1-May 31 period.

This year isn’t the wettest, but it’s close. Chicago’s precipitation records began in 1871 and four years in that 140-year data base delivered more precipitation, with 1975 (21.56 inches) being the wettest.

(click here to continue reading ASK TOM WHY: How much precipitation have we had and how does it compare to the normal? – Chicago Weather Center.)

And yet the Climate Deniers still maintain there is nothing unusual about the 21st century weather; droughts in Texas, tornadoes devastating everywhere, floods on the Mississippi, etc., this means nothing because Al Gore is fat, and flies around on a private jet.

President Barack Obama hasn’t forgotten that 2003 Chicago St. Patrick’s Day parade

May 24, 2011May 24, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Slightly more on fellow Irishman, Barack O’Bama of Moneygall, Ireland…

It was the story of the downtown parade in March 2003, a tale that staffers of the time have heard many times.

“A few volunteers and I did make it into the parade, but we were literally the last marchers,” Obama recalled. “After two hours, finally it was our turn.”

As they rode the route, smiling and waving, the city workers were right behind them, cleaning up the garbage.

“It was a little depressing,” he said. “But I’ll bet those parade organizers are watching TV today and feeling kind of bad, because this is a pretty good parade right here.”

The newly discovered family records are welcome, said Obama, even if they come a little after the fact.

“I do wish somebody had provided me all this genealogical evidence earlier because it would have come in handy back when I was first running in my hometown of Chicago,” he said, “because Chicago is the Irish capital of the Midwest.”

(click here to continue reading President Barack Obama hasn’t forgotten that 2003 Chicago St. Patrick’s Day parade – chicagotribune.com.)

New pavilion for the Chicago zoo

May 23, 2011May 23, 2011 Seth Anderson1 Comment

Played hooky this afternoon, and walked over in Lincoln Park to see the new Urban Oasis, as the prairie restoration and redesign of the south of the Lincoln Park Zoo is being called. So pretty, even though a lot of the plants haven’t filled in yet. Studio Gang did the work, with Chicago architect Jeanne Gang the leading force.

Enter Studio Gang, the local firm that has built many of the city’s recent landmarks, including the Aqua condo tower and the new media center at Columbia College. With a mission to turn the 19th-century urban park from a city-tap fed water source into a natural habitat boasting a vibrant “pond life”, the firm set out to recreate the landscape, through accessible pathways embedded with educational pavilions and exhibit design. In essence, the holistic scheme combines the natural habitat with captivating (but not overwhelming) architecture.

First came the ecological considerations. The firm deepened the pond for better oxygenation, building a surrounding watershed and integrating plant shelves for filtering runoff. Then came the built aspect of the project: Studio Gang devised a winding boardwalk made of recycled plastic milk bottles and featuring educational kiosks. This is a place, after all, where elementary school kids will perform pH tests on the soil and test water quality.

It’s also a place that bicyclists, yogis and the general public will enjoy thanks to *the brilliant pavilion on the boardwalk. The tortoise shell–inspired structure is made of prefab wooden parts, milled and assembled in a self-supporting arch that eschews columns. Uplit by the boardwalk’s recessed ground lights, the structure glows at night like honeycomb lanterns.

(click here to continue reading Azure :: Jeanne Gang’s brilliant pavilion for a Chicago zoo.)

I took some photos with my Nikon, but haven’t processed them yet, so iPhone photos¹ will have to suffice for now.

De Zeen Design Magazine has more details of the structure, if you are interested.

Footnotes:

Hipstamatic, natch [↩]

Chicago Prepares for a Warmer Future Due To Climate Change

May 23, 2011May 23, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Baton Rouge? Yikes. I’ve been to Baton Rouge, and that was pretty steamy. But what is Baton Rouge going to be like?

Regardless, this Chicago initiative is pretty smart. Are other cities this far along? I assume any government run by Republicans will have their head in the sand, pretending that the earth’s climate isn’t changing, despite evidence.

The Windy City is preparing for a heat wave — a permanent one. City planners in Chicago have been told that as temperatures rise, some plants native to the region will die out. Climate scientists have told city planners that based on current trends, Chicago will feel more like Baton Rouge than a Northern metropolis before the end of this century.

So, Chicago is getting ready for a wetter, steamier future. Public alleyways are being repaved with materials that are permeable to water. The white oak, the state tree of Illinois, has been banned from city planting lists, and swamp oaks and sweet gum trees from the South have been given new priority. Thermal radar is being used to map the city’s hottest spots, which are then targets for pavement removal and the addition of vegetation to roofs. And air-conditioners are being considered for all 750 public schools, which until now have been heated but rarely cooled.

(click here to continue reading With Eye on Climate Change, Chicago Prepares for a Warmer Future – NYTimes.com.)

and one more snippet, but you should read the whole, interesting article (free using this link).

As the region warms, Chicago is expecting more frequent and extreme storms. In the last three years, the city has had two intense storms classified as 100-year events.

So the work planned for a six-point intersection on the South Side with flooding and other issues is a prototype. The sidewalk in front of the high school on Cermak Road has been widened to include planting areas that are lower than the street surface. This not only encourages more pedestrian traffic, but also provides shade and landscaping. These will be filled with drought-resistant plants like butterfly weed and spartina grasses that sponge up excess water and help filter pollutants like de-icing salts. In some places, unabsorbed water will seep into storage tanks beneath the streets so it can be used later for watering plants or in new decorative fountains in front of the high school.

The bike lanes and parking spaces being added along the street are covered with permeable pavers, a weave of pavement that allows 80 percent of rainwater to filter through it to the ground below. Already 150 alleyways have been remade in this way.

The light-reflecting pavement is Chicago’s own mix and includes recycled tires. Rubbery additives help the asphalt expand in heat without buckling and to contract without cracking.

And I know this would have been a drop in a bucket, considering, but still, would have been nice if it would have happened for reasons other than climate change:

Among the ideas rejected, Ms. Malec-McKenna said, were plans to immediately shut down local coal-powered energy plants — too much cost for too little payback.

Churchgoers forced to pay parking gods to pray

May 22, 2011May 22, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Poor, poor Christians, forced to pay the city a pittance. Not forced to pay property taxes or anything like that, but even contributing nickles and dimes is apparently too much of a burden.

Churchgoers forced to pay to pray: Ever since the steeple of Chicago’s First United Methodist Church went up across the street from City Hall in the 1830s, worshippers have sought a place to hitch their horse or park their station wagon to pray.

But since the city privatized its parking meters last year, more churchgoers have encountered unanswered prayers for parking. Pricey meters and restricted curbside parking now surround historic houses of worship in the Loop, forcing the faithful to pay to pray or get free parking by volunteering for soup kitchens, tutoring or other ministries.

Some pastors are pushing the city to consider what churches contribute to city life and ease parking restrictions for congregants, especially on Sunday mornings when commercial and government traffic is light.

(Via Churchgoers forced to pay to pray.)

If churches whine themselves into special treatment, I’m petitioning various businesses I frequent to become churches too; restaurants, bars, retail, whatever. Only makes sense, right? Food can be a transcendent experience, better than any bible thumping, at least for me. In fact, I’m declaring that I am a Church, so I demand the right to park anywhere in the City of Chicago for free, at any time.

Obama EPA orders cleanup of the Chicago River

May 12, 2011May 12, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Awesome news, actually. Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel will have a good way to start helping the City of Chicago improve…

Michael Hawthorne reports:

The Obama administration is ordering an ambitious cleanup of the Chicago River, a dramatic step toward improving an urban waterway treated for more than a century as little more than an industrialized sewage canal.

In a letter obtained Wednesday by the Tribune (PDF), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demands that stretches of the river must be clean enough for “recreation in and on the water,” a legal term for recreational activities including swimming and canoeing. The order also applies to two connected waterways, the Cal-Sag Channel and Little Calumet River.

If state officials fail to adopt more stringent water quality standards, the “EPA will promptly do so itself” by invoking its authority under the federal Clean Water Act, the agency’s top water official told Lisa Bonnett, interim director of the Illinois EPA.

“A decade of investments in walkways, boat ramps and parks have provided people with access to the water,” Susan Hedman, the U.S. EPA’s regional administrator, said in a statement. “And now we need to make sure the water is safe.”

Federal officials have been suggesting the river improvements for more than a year but took more aggressive action because they believed state regulators haven’t gone far enough. Complying with the order likely will require more expensive sewer bills in Chicago and the Cook County suburbs, where homeowners and businesses pay among the nation’s lowest costs for treating human and industrial waste.

The nine-page order goes far beyond standards adopted last year by the Illinois Pollution Control Board, a state rule-making panel. The state’s plan limits disease-causing bacteria in the river, but only to a point considered safe enough for paddlers and boaters who briefly fall into the water.

What the Obama administration is envisioning sets the bar higher. As a result, two of the Chicago-area’s massive sewage-treatment plants would need to be overhauled to disinfect partially treated human and industrial waste that churns endlessly into the waterways. Chicago is the only major U.S. city that skips that important germ-killing step. Until now, the river and its connected waterways have been exempt from the toughest provisions of the Clean Water Act because it was long assumed that people wouldn’t want to come near the fetid channels.

(click here to continue reading Water pollution: Obama EPA orders dramatic cleanup of the Chicago River – chicagotribune.com.)

A few photos of the Chicago River. More here

Daley and Duff, BFF

May 9, 2011May 9, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Not that surprising, really. Only would become surprising if anything ever came of it, especially since Mayor Daley is no longer mayor.

In the annals of Daley administration scandals, the name Duff still ranks high.

The politically connected Duff family — campaign supporters of Mayor Daley — won about $100 million in city business, in part through what prosecutors said were bogus claims that they deserved breaks that are set aside for women-owned businesses. Those claims unraveled as James M. Duff pleaded guilty in 2005 to fraud and racketeering, among 33 federal charges.

Daley knew the Duffs, went to their parties, benefitted from their campaign fund-raisers — but downplayed his ties to the family, which, during his tenure, got city cleanup and janitorial work from City Hall at Taste of Chicago, O’Hare Airport and the Harold Washington Library Center,among other lucrative city business.

For anyone keeping score, newly released FBI files show that agents who were keeping tabs on the late John F. “Jack” Duff Jr. — the family patriarch who was an ex-con, disgraced union boss and self-described pal of the late Chicago mob boss Anthony Accardo — had a source who told them “it was common knowledge that Jack Duff Jr. and Mayor Daley were close friends and that Jack Duff Jr. had direct access to the mayor.”

The FBI files on Jack Duff, who died in 2008 at 82, were released to the Better Government Association in response to a federal Freedom of Information Act request. That law allows the release of certain law enforcement files after a person’s death.

(click here to continue reading Mayor Daley’s name turns up in FBI files on embezzler John F. Duff Jr. – Chicago Sun-Times.)

Chicago Museums To Charge Out-of-Staters on Free Days

May 6, 2011May 6, 2011 Seth Anderson2 Comments

Not surprised, really. Tourists are often easy targets for revenue generating ideas (special taxes on hotels, car rentals, etc.). No matter the price, visiting the museums of Chicago is still worth the expense.

The Big Squeeze confronts every facet of the economy and will soon hit culture-craving visitors to Chicago from places like Des Moines, Berlin and Buenos Aires.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of Chicago and the surrounding area for The New York Times. More From the Chicago News Cooperative » Their free ride on free days is about to end. As it does, we can wonder how else we might monetize the city’s 40 million annual visitors.

Very quietly, a consortium of museums has persuaded the Illinois legislature to allow them to charge entry fees to out-of-staters on the 52 free museum days each year mandated by the General Assembly.

The bill, approved unanimously, is on the desk of the Hamlet of Springfield, Gov. Pat Quinn, who presumably will need less time to mull whether to sign this one than he took agonizing over abolition of the death penalty.

Gary Johnson, president of the Chicago History Museum, led the charge as head of Museums in the Parks. That group comprises the Adler Planetarium, Art Institute of Chicago, DuSable Museum of African American History, Field Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Science and Industry, National Museum of Mexican Art, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, John G. Shedd Aquarium and Johnson’s home base in Lincoln Park.

The legislature’s jurisdiction originally involved museums on public parkland, back in an era in which the state gave them operating money. It no longer does, but some still get local help, like the aid Chicago’s museums get from the Park District.

Currently, Chicago’s museums must have 52 days when admission is free even to out-of-staters. They’ve argued for years that they labor under a de facto unfunded state mandate and, with budgets tight, need help.

(click here to continue reading Chicago Museums To Charge Out-of-Staters on Free Days – NYTimes.com.)

and because of this:

Nationally, Chicago appears to offer more freebies than any big city, with the exception of Washington, where so many museums are subsidized by all of us. “We’re off the charts,” another Chicago museum leader told me.

On a personal note, I moved to Chicago because the first time I visited here, as a broke-ass college student, with a vanload of friends hepped up on something or other, I went to the Art Institute when admission was whatever you wanted to pay¹, and was so impressed that suddenly Chicago jumped to the top of the list of cities I wanted to live in. But I understand that in the 21st Century, art is not a priority, and has to pay its own way.

Footnotes:

I paid a dollar [↩]

Division Street North Branch Bridge

April 27, 2011April 27, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

The Halsted bridge is undergoing complete reconstruction, but the Division Street bridge is not, at least yet. Presumedly soon though as it is not in good shape¹. Apparently last rehabilitated in 1983, built in 1903.

This is one of Chicago’s oldest surviving highway bascule bridges, an example of the first generation of bascule bridges built in Chicago and among the oldest surviving bascule bridges in North America. The success of these bridges had a profound influence on Chicago’s decision to populate essentially the entire navigable river/canal system in the city with trunnion bascule bridges during the 20th Century. Further, these bridges were noted by a number of cities across the country who adopted the specific form of the trunnion bascule bridge which became known as the “Chicago trunnion bascule” bridge type.

Each surviving bascule bridge of this first generation in Chicago is nationally significant and should be given the highest preservation priority. This specific bridge was the fourth bridge built in the city according to the first bascule bridge design, which was a complex part-through part-pony truss design as seen here. The superstructure for this bridge was built by Roemheld & Gallery and the Fitzsimmons and Connell Company (both of Chicago) constructed the substructure. Of the small number of surviving first generation bascule bridges in Chicago, this is one of the most heavily altered with a significant number of members, members toward the center of the bridge, having been replaced and/or rivets being replaced with bolts.

(click here to continue reading Division Street North Branch Bridge Historic North Branch Chicago River Division Street.)

Just a wee bit of decay and rust, no?

Footnotes:

to my non-engineer eye [↩]

Rain Rain Rain

April 27, 2011April 27, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

It actually seems like nearly every day in April has either been rainy, or at least overcast, but I guess that’s a bit of an exaggeration. A bit. As Tom Skilling reported yesterday:

Rain-weary Chicagoans won’t find this hard to believe. April 2011 has produced 16 days of measurable rain—55 percent more than normal and the greatest number of measurably rainy April days here in the 50 years since 1961! A scan of Aprils back to 1871 indicates the opening 28 days of the month typically sees 11 measurable rains. “Measurable rain” is defined as any rainfall which reaches or exceeds 0.01-inch.

The month’s 4.56 inches of rain through Tuesday ranks as the 17th rainiest April in 140 years of records. While 124 have been drier, only 16 have been wetter.

Latest storm’s rain to “swipe” Chicago; heaviest totals expected east and south–but a flood watch posted for area rivers which are running near bankful

Heavy rains sweep northeastward into an area EAST of Chicago Wednesday. Lighter rains to the west will swipe the metro area from time to time with several tenths to as much as a half inch of rain at some locations. Flood watches have been hoisted for Chicago area river basins.

(click here to continue reading April’s produced the most measurable rain days in a half century; month ranks 17th wettest in 140 years! – Chicago Weather Center.)

And today? Rain has been steady since I woke up, and doesn’t look like today will be sunny either.

—

Late update: didn’t realize quite how bad the weather is in the rest of the country. Puts things in perspective a little. I’ll take a few weeks of rain over massive flooding, tornados, or whatever else.

First Ramps of the Season

April 26, 2011April 26, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Look what I got today from Harmony Valley, WI, via Freshpicks.com

Shot with my Hipstamatic for iPhone¹

Allium tricoccum — also known as the ramp, spring onion, ramson, wild leek, wild garlic, and, in French, ail sauvage and ail des bois — is an early spring vegetable with a strong garlicky odor and a pronounced onion flavor. A perennial member of the onion family (Alliaceae), the plant has broad, smooth, light green leaves, often with deep purple or burgundy tints on the lower stems, and a scallion-like stalk and bulb. Both the white lower leaf stalks and the broad green leaves are edible. The flower stalk appears after the leaves have died back, unlike the similar Allium ursinum, in which leaves and flowers can be seen at the same time. Ramps grow in groups strongly rooted just beneath the surface of the soil. They are found from the U.S. state of South Carolina to Canada. They are popular in the cuisines of the rural upland South and in the Canadian province of Quebec when they emerge in the springtime. They have a growing popularity in upscale restaurants throughout North America.

A thick growth of ramps near Lake Michigan in Illinois in the 17th century gave the city of Chicago its name, after the area was described by 17th-century explorer Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, and explained by his comrade, naturalist-diarist Henri Joutel.

The plant called Chicagou in the language of native tribes was once thought to be Allium cernuum, the nodding wild onion, but research in the early 1990s showed the correct plant was the ramp. The ramp has strong associations with the folklore of the central Appalachian Mountains. Fascination and humor have fixated on the plant’s extreme pungency. Jim and Bronson Comstock founded The West Virginia Hillbilly, a weekly humor and heritage newspaper, in 1957, and ramps were a frequent topic. For one legendary issue, Jim Comstock introduced ramp juice into the printer’s ink, invoking the ire of the U.S. Postmaster General. The mountain folk of Appalachia have long celebrated spring with the arrival of the ramp, believing it to have great power as a tonic to ward off many ailments of winter. A ramp bath was featured in the film Where the Lilies Bloom (1974) about life in North Carolina.

(click here to continue reading Allium tricoccum – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

Footnotes:

Lens: John S, Film: Kodot XGrizzled [↩]

CCP Holden Building purchased by SCC

April 13, 2011April 13, 2011 Seth Anderson3 Comments

Good news re: an old, seemingly abandoned historic Chicago building on W. Madison. Local ad agency Schafer Condon Carter has purchased it, and it going to restore it. I don’t know how much they paid, nor how much they’ve budgeted to modernize it, but I’m happy they are doing so.

An employee left the following comment on the above Flickr photo:

Hey, good news! The advertising agency I work for, Schafer Condon Carter, recently bought the building and are in the early stages of internal demolition. We will be moved in by November of this year! The space has been vacant for quite some time and desperately needs some love which we’re all excited to give it! You can track the buildings progress from our site, www.sccadv.com. We will be installing time-lapsing cameras to catch its development. Cheers.

and via www.urbanremainschicago.com/item.aspx?itemID=700

charles p. holden was a well-known chicago resident during the 1860’s & 70’s. he was deeply involved in real estate and/or development in and around the westside of chicago. this particular building was built shortly after the great chicago fire of 1871. as a consequence of the fire, this structure contains 8 seperate vaults w/ ornamental cast iron safe doors. that way, any valuable assets stashed away could be rescued if another conflaguration was to arise. in addition to the vaults, the first floor contained cast iron fluted columns w. corinthian capitals. the window and door casings were milled in a deep relief pine wood (typical of this period). interestingly, the load bearing columns on all of the upper floors were fashioned in the form of rounded wood columns w/ simple banding near the cap. the decorative stone facade will be rehabilitated during the building’s conversion to other uses.

From the SCC website:

Schafer|Condon|Carter (SCC) is pleased to announce its purchase of the C.C.P. Holden building at 1027 W. Madison Street in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. The agency plans to move its operations to the 34,500 square-foot building in the fall of 2011 after an extensive renovation.

C.C.P. Holden, a well-known Chicago political figure, railroad magnate and real estate developer was very involved in the massive reconstruction efforts after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and built the Italianate limestone, sandstone, terra cotta, brick and timber structure in 1872. It is one of only a handful of such architectural gems in Chicago. SCC will be working with Chicago-based Widler Architecture on the restoration. When finished it will be a model of conservation and sustainability.

(click here to continue reading Schafer | Condon | Carter.)

another view

I’ll have to stop over there later this summer and see what changes are visible from the outside.

A Little Sigh

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

My feeble attempt to emulate Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon School. There were no peasants nearby unfortunately. Perhaps I could superimpose one, if I found a peasant anywhere in Chicago.

Better if viewed in Lightbox

Photo taken with the Hipstamatic app¹.

Footnotes:

Lens: Melodie, Film: Kodot XGrizzled [↩]

Full

March 31, 2011March 31, 2011 Seth Anderson0 comment

Chicago’s iconic Marina City Tower, closeup. Designed by Bertrand Goldberg. If I’m not mistaken, if you park here, there is a valet service that will back your car into your designated spot. I’d be a little nervous parking here, at least the first few times.

here’s a different angle of the same building.

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