Unusual Architecture in Chicago
 

Hey there, Chicago forum,

Naturally, the term "unusual" is subjective...that said, I'll be in Chicago for a couple of days, and would like to visit some nuanced buildings. The Tribune tower (with artifacts from various sites around the world stuck into it) and the Baha'i temple are two such examples. The stack of cars (though it no longer exists) would be another.

Thanks,
BmB

Frank Lloyd Wright tour (Oak Park)
Architectural Foundation River tour (see the "corncobs")
Museum of Science and Industry
Robie House
Willis (Sears) Tower
Hancock Building (view from lounge at top)
"Movie Houses" ("Home Alone," "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," etc.)
Cultural Center (old public library, with Tiffany glass dome)
Indoor pool at Intercontinental Hotel on Michigan
Blues Brothers sites
Lake Point Tower
Rookery Building
Seventeenth Church Of Christ, Scientist
Chicago Water Tower
Merchandise Mart
Old Post Office

Many more.

Chicago is one of the great world cities for architecture.

Even if you want to see one particular style, Chicago often has multiple examples. For example, the subset of modernist architecture known as "brutalism"

http://chicagobrutalism.com

Lots to see in Chicago. For some ideas look at:
http://www.architecture.org/architec...gs-of-chicago/
https://www.architecture.org/experie...nsportation=40
http://www.evisitorguide.com/chicago...loop/loop.html

I wasn't aware of brutalism, but I recognize many of those buildings!

BuildingMyBento, as others have said, Chicago is home to spectacular architecture, and I'd encourage you to read through the Chicago Architectural Foundation's website. If you're going out to the Baha'i Temple you might want to swing by the Leaning Tower YMCA in Niles. (You can guess, based on the name, why I might suggest it.)

Slightly off-topic: There's a wonderful 99% Invisible piece on brutalism (link below), I highly recommend it.

http://99percentinvisible.org/episod...-love-a-brute/

Also, fun fact: Ian Fleming LOATHED brutalism with a passion. He named Goldfinger (the character) after Erno Goldfinger, the brutalist architect. It wasn't intended as flattery.

Even more off topic: Isn't it odd how you may have never heard of something, then you hear a cluster of mentions? Just today I was browsing online furniture offerings and saw something described as a brutalist-style buffet.

"nuanced buildings"?

Harold Washington Library for one of the more bizarre mistakes of the recent past.

LOL. This is what you get when the public votes. A horrific pastiche where everything is fake. Those imposing walls? An inch thick of fake stone. Acres of unusable space.

Oh, that it was.

I've always enjoyed pointing out the Blue Cross Blue Shield building to visitors. While the building doesn't look particularly noteworthy from an architectural perspective, it was intentionally designed so that it could be expanded not outward but upward, and in 2007 the building went from 33 stories to 57 stories tall.

Yeah, that's a fun one. "see that spot in the middle? It used to be the roof." :D

I'm hit or miss with liking brutalist buildings. Goldberg's stuff is usually pretty interesting (obvious is Marina City, but River City is cool too). Some of the Netsch' buildings on the UIC campus are pretty depressing, but his libraries at UofC (Regenstein) and Northwestern are both interesting.

Random aside, I'd never been to the aforementioned Regenstein Library at UofC before this past spring. My daughter's class studied the 1893 World's Fair. Regenstein has a good collection of artifacts from the fair including maps, guidebooks, big picture books (similar but not quite what we'd call a coffee table book today), souvenirs, etc, so her class took a field trip there. I was one of the chaperones. Got off the bus, saw the library ... hmm, this looks just like Northwestern's library. Yep, both Netsch.