Slice of Life: Bus Tour

For some reason the two features of this blog that people seem to like the most are the "Slice of Life" pieces, and videos.  People who don't live in the city, or who live in different neighborhoods, seem drawn to scenes of everyday life in Chicago.  They also like moving pictures.

Recently my CrappyCameraPhone™ acquired the ability to create truly terrible-quality videos.  So to satisfy the readers desire for both the moving and the mundane, here is a really poor quality video showing a bus ride from the Loop to Water Tower Place (845 North Michigan Avenue). Enjoy!

Slice of Life: Purple Rain

A heavy snow followed by a bright sunny spell is the perfect recipe for rain if you happen to be in the Loop and walking under the elevated tracks.  You may need to click on the picture to enlarge it enough to see the shower of freshly melted snow raining down through the train tracks.

Slice of Life: Three Chicago Things

Three things remind me most of Chicago when I'm away -- historic architecture, the CTA, and snow.  This shot of the historic Water Tower (806 North Michigan Avenue) and the Pumping Station (163 East Pearson Street) across Michigan Avenue puts those three elements together.

Though Chicago is more of a cold city than a snowy city, we have exceeded our average snowfall by more than ten inches so far this season.

It Snot What It Looks Like

It's interesting the way a city shows its age.  Take for example, these stalactites dripping through a crack in a part of the CTA's rail system.  You've probably seen these all over town.  There used to be some epic ones at the Randolph & Wabash station and in the transfer tunnel between the red and blue lines.  I bet there's still some in the Blue Line station at Grand.

While stalactites take hundreds of years to form in caves, the CTA seems to be able to grow them in a matter of just decades.

You can make your own at home in a matter of days.  This web page has instructions.

Raccoons Are Not Afraid of the El

Digging through some old files I came across this piece of video.  It shows a raccoon getting its dinner on an El platform while passengers and trains come and go.  The critter doesn't seem to care.

The video is pretty poor quality because it was shot in 2003 with a Sony Clie UX-50 -- a kind of souped-up Palm Pilot.  It was state of the art at the time, but the art has changed a lot since then.

The Wheels On The Bus Go... Oh, Holy Crap!

This picture is from last winter, but when I happened to come across it I found it far too interesting not to post.  It's a CTA route 151 bus on Michigan Avenue after its tire has come off the wheel.

I'm not sure how something like this happens, but you can bet someone had a bad day.

Slice of Life: Perspective Under the El

Horizon lines on the ground merge with their lofty counterparts created by the CTA's Brown and Pink line tracks near the Ashland Station (1601 West Lake Street) above Lake Street.

One El of a Storefront

Over the last few years, the CTA has spent millions erecting a new Brown Line elevated station at Chicago Avenue (301 West Chicago Avenue).  The new edifice on the south side of the street is a magical grid of steel and glass and screeching train wheels.  But on the other side of the street, a piece of architectural history has been left behind.

That's where the old stationhouse still stands, silently holding its own against the near-continuous thunder rolling over it from above.  The windows at 300 West Chicago Avenue have been papered over, but this little house hasn't been abandoned.  In fact, I recently saw a CTA team gently removing graffiti from the east side.

So, what will become of it?  That's up to the economy.  It would be an excellent building for a quirky little cafe, but who wants to be the one to open across the street from an established Starbucks?  A pizza joint might be right, except that one block over pizza restaurants seem to come and go with some regularity.  We've heard that it's currently being used for equipment storage.

So, what are your suggestions?  What kind of business would be right for this property?  Our nomination:  A tiny museum about Chicago's El system.

For more than you ever wanted to know about the history of this station, check out this page at Chicago-L.org.

A Closer Look at the CTA Light Show

Once or twice in the past I've blogged about the CTA's elevated station at State Street in the Loop.  The reason was because last winter I noticed some kind of light show on the stationhouse.  At first I thought I was imagining things, but eventually I got the chance to see it up close and personal.  It is real.

It consists of semi-opaque panels just above the El superstructure.  Behind the panels appears to be arrays of colored LEDs.  The panels change colors quickly enough to be noticed, but not so quickly as to be distracting.

The light is powerful enough to actually cast a stripe across the width of State Street, as seen in this CrappyCameraPhone™ photo.

I still haven't been able to track down any information about it other than the CTA is required to set aside a certain percentage of any money spent on renovating stations for use in public art.  I'm OK with that, especially if this is the result.

CTA Circle Line Meetings

Get the latest information and ask your questions about the CTA's proposed Circle Line El project.

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009
  6:00pm - 8:00pm (presentation at 6:15pm)
  University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
  Molecular Biology Research Building
  900 S. Ashland Avenue (Marshfield entrance)
• Wednesday, September 30, 2009
  6:00pm - 8:00pm (presentation at 6:15pm)
  Bucktown/Wicker Park Chicago Public Library
  Second Floor Community Room
  1701 N. Milwaukee Avenue
• Thursday, October 1, 2009
  6:00pm - 8:00pm (presentation at 6:15pm)
  Benito Juarez Community Academy
  21 S. Laflin Street

Status Update: CTA Red Line Grand Station

If you're one of the thousands of people who have been detoured off State Street in the last few months, here you can see why -- there's a massive gaping hole in the street.  It's the nearly total rebuilding of the CTA's Red Line station at Grand Avenue (521 North State Street).  You're spending $67 million on the project, which is the station's first renovation in 66 years.  I couldn't find an anticipated completion date on the CTA's main web site, and the special site for journalists appears to have disappeared since the new main site went online.  If anyone knows the date, post it in the comments section below.

Slice of Life: Two Trains That Pass on the Right

Two CTA Brown Line trains pass one another on the upper level of the Wells Street Bridge over the Chicago River while cars and pedestrians do the same on the level below.

Seeing Chicago Reality in Hollywood's Fiction

There are several iconic films which showcase Chicago's buildings, streets, and urban life.  The next time you hit Netflix looking for a bit of Windy City flavor, skip Ferris and the Blues Brothers and check out Stranger Than Fiction.

The 2006 Will Ferrel / Emma Thompson / Maggie Gyllenhaal flick was filmed in Chicago, and while the city isn't specifically mentioned by name, it's easily recognizable to people who live here.

Particularly heavily showcased are the buses and trains of the Chicago Transit Authority.  The CTA is featured so much that it's almost a character unto itself.

Whether you like the film's story or not, here are some things to look for:

• The man hosing down the sidewalk is doing it in front of Sears on State Street
• The building she fantasizes about leaping off of is the Chicago Building on State Street.
• CNA Building visible in the window of the IRS office where Harold works.  It might be Mid-Continental Plaza.  The lobby of his building, however, is the Daley Center.
• Harold's bus stop on the way home from work is in front of the Federal Plaza Post Office.  The stop is fictional and on the wrong side of the street for a bus to pick people up.
• Harold gets off the bus too early, in front of the John Hancock Center.  Water Tower Place's Drury Lane Theater is visible in the background.
• Harold walks in the rain past the Little Village laundromat.
• Harold's friend Dave lives in River City.
• The Book Channel interview was filed at WMAQ's studio with Pioneer Plaza visible in the background.
• The lobby of the fictional Banneker Press is actually the residential lobby of the John Hancock Center.  The "175" that is normally on the lobby's awning is replaced with "2267" in the movie.
• Harold makes a phone call from a fake bank of pay phones in the tunnel connecting the blue and red line subways.
• All of the college shots are the University of Illinois at Chicago.
• Harold's hospital room is in Tribune Tower.

Chicago Called "Sad" in Latest Best Cities List

It seems like every publication from the web to newspapers to magazines has a "Best Cities" list.

Some are more useful than others.  A financial magazine might rank the best cities in which to start a business. A medical magazine might rank which cities are the best for new doctors.  And there are dozens and dozens of publications which try to rate the best places to live.

One of the more respected publications is the Financial Times of London.  Since 1888 it has done a very good job of reporting news, features, and more to its mainly upper-class business-minded global-traveling readers.

In the last few years it's also taken on the challenge of ranking the best places to live.

This year the list was published on June 13th.  The top three are:

1. Zurich
2. Copenhagen
3. Tokyo

Chicago is not in the top three.  Nor is it in the top ten.  Nor the top 50.  Chicago doesn't rank at all.  But that doesn't mean Chicago was absent from consideration.  In fact, the second paragraph of the article was all about Chicago.  Here it is, responding to the question, "Could you live here?":

On the train to Chicago's O'Hare: "No way.  It's neither one thing nor the other and just look at this sad excuse of a train to the airport."

It's easy to take umbrage at such a comment.  But those of us who have taken the train to O'Hare, then taken a train from a foreign airport to our hotel know this is entirely true.  Even third world countries have better subway systems than Chicago, and better connectivity from airports to downtowns.

Mayor Daley has made half-hearted attempts at improving the link between O'Hare and the city center.  His Block 37 super station was the latest.  Also the express train plan which he came up with after a trip to Asia and seeing how one of the poorest countries in the world kick Chicago's butt when it comes to things like mass transit, cleanliness, and city services all while maintaining far lower taxes than we enjoy in the Windy City.

It's something I haven't been able to figure out yet.  The mayor knows that mass transit is one of the most important points that the International Olympic Committee is looking at in awarding the 2016 Games.  The mayor is de facto in charge of the CTA.  Yet, except for when there is a serious crisis, he keeps his hands off of the transit agency in a way that mayors in New York, London, Los Angeles, and elsewhere don't.

If the mayor wants Chicago to stop its descent into backwater status, then this is something he has to seriously address.  The Financial Times calls Chicago "sad" in the second paragraph of its story -- A story that has been read by hundreds of thousands of decision makers and opinion leaders around the world.  A story that they will repeat to other influential people.  One paragraph that is the start of global recognition that Chicago isn't everything it should be.

It should also be an internal alarm for the city to recognize that no one outside the hayseed flyover states gives a crap about whether the Sox or the Cubs win the "Crosstown Classic."  If Chicago wants to be a global player, which is something its mayor claims, then it's time to start acting like it.  Like all races, if you're not leading, you're losing.  This ranking is yet another indication of the beer-addled naval gazing that for generations has eroded the city's global presence from world innovator to historic also-ran.

Three Kinds of Blue on Dearborn Street

Have you seen the new subway entrances that the CTA is using in the Loop?  They're nice.  They remind you of the quaint Quincy elevated station (the only CTA station without advertising).

When a pack of businessmen in trench coats and fedoras flush out of the tunnel during rush hour it just feels like you're looking back in time.  I'm not sure if Chicago is the only city in the world where men still wear fedoras and pork pie hats, but I'm grateful that some things haven't changed.  Especially when you consider the alternative.

This monstrosity is just a block away and represents the worst of the city's mass transit architecture.  According to Chicago-L , this entrance is from the mid-80's based on designs from the 70's.  It looks like it.  Utilitarian in the worst sense of the word.  But there's relief just two more blocks away.

Unlike London, Tokyo, Paris and other cities, there aren't many private subway entrances in Chicago.  This may be the only one.  It's in front of the Chase Tower (10 South Dearborn) and instead of having layers of caked-on blue paint, it features nice brass plaques and stonework that matches the nearby plaza.  Chase finished this project in 2008 and the results are great.  Though most people don't think of it, it's a little gift to the city from the bank.

Illuminating Loop Art

The good news is that we're not on crack.  A few weeks ago I published a blog entry about the renovation of the CTA State/Lake elevated station .  As part of the renovation, the facade is now illuminated by color-changing LEDs.  It's very cool, especially with the Chicago Theater and WLS Television marquees right next to it.

When I published that entry I thought that maybe I'd been seeing things.  Someone who worked on the station renovation even wrote that he knew nothing about it. While I haven't been able to get down there on foot at night lately to confirm what I saw, I did at least see it again.

Once again -- on the 151 bus heading north on State Street, just before the turn eastward on Washington there it was again in all its glowing glory -- the "light bridge."  I've circled it in orange in this crappy camera phone picture  (yeah, I know my lawyer will have a fit for publishing camera phone pix shot on a CTA bus).

I really am going to make an effort to get down there and shoot it properly.  It's silly since I live and work maybe a dozen blocks away.  But somehow something else always comes up.

Is The CTA On Board With State Street Illuminations?

Maybe it was too much beer at Old Saint Pat's , but I swear while riding the 151 up State Street tonight I saw dancing panels of light on the CTA's State/Lake station.  They illuminated the truss substructure in white and then displayed apparently random blocks of green and red on the elevated station's main façade.

The bus turned before I could get a picture, so maybe I imagined it.  If I didn't, it will be a great and imaginative addition to the neon corridor anchored by WLS Television , the Chicago Theater , and most recently the Joffrey Tower .

My advice:  Have the colors illuminating the platform change based on which train is in the station: Green, Brown (might be hard), Purple, Orange, Pink, or Red (happens more often than you'd think).

Progress Report: Chicago Avenue Brown Line station

A few years back we at the Chicago Architecture Blog went a little nuts when the Brown Line rehab project got underway.  Now that we're starting to reap the benefits, it might be time to calm down a little bit.


Anyway, this piece of good news just came in from Alderman Riley's office:

Chicago Brown Line CTA Station Update

Beginning Friday, July 19th, the Chicago Brown Line station will see the re-opening of Franklin Street for normal pedestrian usage.  The obstructions currently located on either side of Franklin Street will be removed at this time.  The permanent staircases currently located on Chicago Avenue and Franklin Street will operate as an "exit only" staircase until the completion of the project. The station should be fully operational on September 7th.  The staircases on Chicago and Franklin will be open for both entrance and exit, and the elevators at the same location will be fully operational at this time.

Woo hoo!