Slice of Life: Heart in His Hands

A bridge abutment on North Union Street is the home of this time-worn piece of art.  It's a depiction of a human heart being cradled in a pair of human hands.  Is it creepy?  Maybe.  Is it a social statement?  Who can say?  It's always just wonderful to stumble across works of art in unexpected places.

Slice of Life: Shameful Skyline

The famous Chicago skyline in the background is eclipsed by a skyline of refuse in the foreground at 2542 South Wood Street.

Slice of Life: No Window Unsmashed

A pair of industrial facilities lie derelict on Chicago's South Side.  Between the two of them, only one window remains intact.  The silos at 2860 South Damen Avenue were built in the 1930's.

Slice of Life: Don't Cross the Fuller Street Bridge

Don't cross the Fuller Street Bridge.  Why?  Because it doesn't exist anymore.  This is the location where the bridge once crossed a portion of the Chicago River, linking homes in Bridgeport to factories on the other side.  It was a center-pivot swing bridge, but exists only in history books now.

Slice of Life: Rats and Rust

The Willis Tower peeks through the rusty superstructure of a Norfolk South railroad bridge.  Someone has helpfully spray painted a warning that there are rats nearby.  Or not.

Slice of Life: The Abandoned Damen Silos

A bright, shiny new barge sits in front of the abandoned South Damen Avenue silos.  We haven't been able to find out much about them, but preliminary research seems to indicate they weren't for grain -- but for sand for some kind of glassworks.

Update: UNStudio's Burnham Pavilion to Close for Repairs

Last week in an article titled This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, I wrote about how tourists and visitors are damaging UNStudio's contribution to the 100th anniversary of the Burnham Plan for Chicago.

Ben van Berkel's sometimes-called "Light Table" pavilion at Millennium Park (25 North Michigan Avenue) has been scarred by hordes of unruly children and teens who were never taught to respect art or the property of others.  Worse, they were enabled by parents who failed to admonish them, seeing the architecture as a jungle gym and temporary babysitter.

I took an unusual amount of flack for what I wrote from people who suggested that there's nothing wrong with children destroying the built environment.  And since children behave like animals at the Daley Plaza Picasso, they should be allowed to destroy other works around the city.

Well, in keeping with your mother's admonition of "This is why we can't have nice things" since the city of Chicago can't behave, it's having its toy taken away.

According to the Chicago Tribune, The Light Table will be closed for repairs starting Tuesday.  The damage is so extensive that the director of the Burnham Plan Central Committee told the Trib that if the repairs aren't done, the pavilion might not survive until Halloween, the scheduled end of its run in Millennium Park.

Attention is also being turned to Zaha Hadid's Z-Pod installation.  As we showed you a couple of days ago, within hours of its unveiling the offspring of those with bad parenting skills were already trying to climb the fabric, leaving footprints on other people's hard work.  Now, the Tribune article continues, the structure's more sensitive areas may be cordoned off with a railing.

We'll see if that protects the structure, or just serves as a launching pad or another piece of playground equipment from which young vandals-in-training can swing.