Buildings in Chicago

Chicago Open House - October 19, 2013

Every year, the Chicago Architectural Foundation hosts Open House Chicago, a two day event in which the public is allowed to visit many buildings. Having a Saturday free of swimming obligations, we headed down to our favorite Midwestern city for the day.

First stop was the Prairie Avenue District, an area of Chicago that we had never visited. The district is famed for its history, including the 1812 Battle of Fort Dearborn where George Ronan and his 47 Samurai were killed. By the end of the 19th Century things had settled down and wealthy Chicagoans, such as George Pullman and Marshall Field, built mansions on Prairie Avenue.

We began our tour with the John J. Glessner House, a Downton Abbey themed castle constructed in 1887 by a vice-president of International Harvester. The house's unique design was particularly upsetting to George Pullman, who lived across the street - causing him to exclaim "I do not know what I have ever done to have that thing staring me in the face every time I go out of my door." Because he could not tolerate looking at the house, Pullman designed a railway sleeping car so he could spend his nights away from the Glessner House.

The house that caused George Pullman so much consternation that he would rather face a nationwide strike than sleep next door.

Nearby was the Henry B. Clarke House, which is the oldest surviving residence in Chicago. Built in 1833, it resembled a southern plantation house more than a Midwestern home due to its Greek Revival Style. 

Small potatoes compared to the ancient Greek architect Ictinus's Parthenon

Unknown to most Chicagoan, the headquarters of Lollipop Guild was next door to the Henry B. Clarke house until nearby residents complained about the incessant singing that emanated from the building at all hours of the night.

Former headquarters of the Lollipop Guild

Next up was the Keith House, an 1870s mansion converted into an art gallery.  Oddly, there was a shower in the public restroom.

The Keith House - surprisingly older than the Rolling Stone with its namesake

We also toured the Wheeler Mansion, another 1870s house turned boutique hotel. While on the second floor, we witnessed people at the house next door smoking pot on their balcony. This caused an aging, hippy appearing man in our room to yell - "hey Norman share some with me!"

The last house we viewed in the Prairie Avenue District was the William W. Kimball House, former home to the piano manufacturer's founder. Built in the Châteauesque style (think of the Château Frontenac in Québec City), Kimball wanted a house that was more glorious than that of Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg. In Kimball's later years, he became a big patron of United States Soccer, being instrumental in bringing David Beckham to play for Los Angeles by offering him a lifetime supply of pianos.

The Kimball House - where pianos melded with international football

Finished with the Prairie Avenue District, we moved onto the Loop and the Blackstone Hotel. Called the Hotel of Presidents, the phrase "smoke-filled rooms" originated here when the 20th Century's greatest president, Warren Harding, was selected as the Republican nominee by a bunch of old white men in one of the rooms. Since a bunch of old white men had never picked a presidential nominee before or after, the Blackstone Hotel became immortal in the eyes of today's Tea Party.

Al Capone would use a baseball bat on guests that were loud and unruly

The Presidential Suite at the Blackstone; also the bed in which both JFK and Jimmy Carter lusted in their hearts after women who were not their wives.

After all this walking around, we had worked up a lusty appetite so we arrived at Kramer's Health Foods. The restaurant / health food store's only clientele appeared to be aging hippies who apparently would never need to use the WC because the place lacked a bathroom. In addition, the vegan ham in my sandwich neither tasted nor had the remote appearance of a meat derived from our porcine cousins.

A restaurant without a loo is not groovy.

After a short walk, we arrived at my favorite building in Chicago, the Fisher Building. Built in 1896 for the paper magnate and great grand-father of Jeff Bridges (who appeared in the the Fisher King), Lucius Fisher, it is the oldest 18 story building in Chicago. Containing lots of aquatic leitmotifs, we were able to tour an apartment and adjoining hallways.

The nearby L causes the Fisher Building to sway back and forth regularly.

Across from the Fisher Building, the Harold Washington Library is the largest public library in the world. If you look carefully, you can see the owl Hedwig (of Harry Potter fame) on the corner of the building; J.K. Rowling was Mayor Washington's favorite English author.

The Fisher Building continues to contain the world's largest valve factory.

After the Fisher King building, we briefly toured the headquarters of the architects, Holabird & Root, located in the Marquette Building - named after the French explorer and basketball scion. In its heydays, the firm designed iconic buildings such as the Palmer House, the Chicago Board of Trade, and of course Solider Field, the backyard of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

Trying to find a more modern architectural firm, we visited Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture, designers of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

Early model of the Burj Khalifa at the headquarters of Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture. The property's developers, Emaar Properties, wanted something a little taller so Adrian Smith went back to the drawing board and conceived a building slightly taller.

After looking at models of the Burj Khalifa and other post-modern skyscrapers, we craved more traditional buildings so we set off to Randolph Tower. This historic Gothic Revival skyscraper was built in 1929 for the Steuben Club of Chicago to promote the loyalty of German-Americans to America after the bad rap they received in World War I. 

The Steuben Club decided that the best way to demonstrate their loyalty to the ideals of America was to recruit Americans of German heritage who were engaging in time-honored American occupations, such as that of bank robber. Thus, the Steuben Club became a hang-out for gangster John Dillinger, who dated one of the coat-check girls. 

Long after the Steuben Club was gone, the 45 story building fell on hard times and chunks of the terra cotta facade began falling off in the 1990s. Luckily, the building underwent a beautiful renovation in 2012 and now serves as a residential apartment building.

Upon arrival at Randolph Tower, we took two different elevators to the apartment's fancy club house high above the street, which was littered with relics left over from the days of the Steuben Club.

Clubhouse of the German-Americans

Tree brought over from Berlin to promote German-American friendship

Dillinger used this spot as a look-out from the Feds

Matching his and her lounge chairs commissioned by Dillinger his coat-check gal 

Sheep brought over from Hamburg as a show of German-American friendship

Life-size chess pieces constructed in Munich to symbolize the Kaiser's magnificence

Having had our fill of German-American heritage, we walked across the Chicago River to the world famous Merchandise Mart Building.

Smiling because the Dave Matthews Band wasn't dumping waste into the river today

The world's largest building until the Pentagon, the Merchandise Mart was built in 1930 by Marshall Fields to centralize Chicago's wholesale goods business. It was so large that it had its own zip code until 2008 and is still a leading retailing and wholesale destination.

Owned by the Kennedy family for 50 years, Joseph Kennedy had eight huge bronze busts of famous American merchants placed outside to become the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame. Through the years, the Hall of Fame has generated much controversy; Edward Filene objected when his bust was placed in the basement and David Letterman called it the Pez Hall of Fame because the busts atop tall vertical pedestals resembled the candy's dispensers. The Hall of Fame's ignominy was complete when it became the favored resting spot for the Windy City pigeons.

The Pez Hall of Fame, Joseph Kennedy's greatest contribution to American culture

Karl Marx, one of America's greatest merchants

Former Sears Roebuck president, Robert Elkington Wood, was secretly a stool pigeon

After seeing the Pez Hall of Fame, we entered the Merchandise Mart to tour 1871, which is a sort of club for digital start-ups and is named after the year in which the Great Fire of Chicago occurred. The lobby on the main floor of the Merchandise Mart is as vast as the building itself and interestingly appeared in the Coen Brothers film, the Hudsucker Proxy.

Wishing Tim Robbins would appear and say "You know, for kids"

Following our tour of what was once the world's largest building, we walked about a mile south down Michigan Avenue to see what was once the world's largest auditorium, housed in the creatively named Auditorium Building. 

Located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway, the building was completed in 1889 by the famous architects Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Intended to make high culture accessible to the working classes of Chicago, the building ultimately became more accessible to Deadheads when the Grateful Dead played there 10 times in the 1970s.

Today, the building is home to Roosevelt University, a progressive University named after Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, which purchased the building in 1947 for the massive sum of one dollar. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the actual auditorium because it was closed after noon and had to settle on seeing the university's gorgeous library on the 10th floor the building. 

The library's stunning view of Buckingham Fountain inspired noted Roosevelt University alumni Al Bundy to include the fountain in the opening credits for Married . . . with Children.

Buckingham Fountain - made famous through the efforts of Al and Peg Bundy

For the last building of the day, we walked to the nearby Fine Arts Building. This 10 story building constructed in 1885 was known as the Studebaker Building because it was built to display carriages  for the wagon and automobile company of the same name. 

In 1898 is was converted into an artist's colony and has remained dedicated to the arts for over 100 years, housing art galleries, dance studios, and musical instrument makers. Famed Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright had an office there in the early 1900s. 

Although the building was supposedly was recently renovated, it contains a huge crumbling and abandoned theater and faded but ornate Art Nouveau motifs and murals. Despite the disintegrating nature of the building (or maybe because of them), the building was my favorite of the day due to its fascinating character. It even had a lift that still had a live elevator operator who made small talk with you while taking you to the heights of the building. 

Door that was the inspiration for the Hall & Oates song, Private Eyes, 

Lee was a distant cousin to the Stradivarius family

Frank Lloyd Wright's favorite Arabian style door

Beautiful remodeling work in the Fine Arts Building

Only those wearing Elevator Shoes allowed to press this button

Waiting for her favorite elevator operator to take us to the heights

Castles, skyscrapers, gangsters, and of course corny jokes, our tour of Chicago's buildings had it all and we look forward to coming back again for the 2014 Open House Chicago.

Disappearing on Khao San Road

January 18, 2014

The Place to Disappear, as author Susan Orlean described Khao San Road, was our next destination. Her description of Khao San was more sinister sounding than a street name that literally translated to "milled rice." With Orlean's words in mind, we had to find out whether we would fade away by visiting the most famous backpacker ghetto in the world.

As we departed from our Chao Pharava Express river cruise, we followed some Japanese tourists that were also looking for Khao San Road. Perhaps tired of the frenzied life in Tokyo, they too had come to Khao San to fade away. After a short two block walk, we found ourselves on Soi Rambuttri (a soi in Thai is a side-street branching off a major street), a small street close to Khao San Road. 

Rambuttri was full of shops and street vendors hawking everything from super cheap North Face backpacks (which at $10 a piece were probably knock-offs) to Big Lebowski t-shirts (the Dude was Thai right?). Becky immediately began perusing the sunglasses for sale.

A new pair of sunglasses will surely allow her to "disappear" by making her unrecognizable.

Backpackers can be spotted by their obligatory dread locks and happy themed guesthouses

Are these were tourists who "disappeared" by becoming stone statues?

In addition to the cafes that lined the soi, Rambuttri had the required ice cream and coconut juice vendors. All through our travels in Indochina, coconut juice was sold by the tree load. The vendor would cut the top off a fresh coconut and insert a straw. Apparently, after consuming the juice, one was required to scrape the coconut mush out and eat that too. Not feeling brave enough to try the coconut yet, I stuck with a bowl of coconut flavored ice cream from one of the street vendors.

The Professor on Gilligan's Island could make a cool radio out of that coconut

More former tourists who "disappeared"

The ubiquitous tuk tuks

Because our bodies were still adjusting to a time-zone that was 13 hours ahead of Wisconsin, we stopped at a cafe on Soi Rambuttri for lattes.

Desperately attempting to connect to wifi after going a record two hours without checking Facebook

After our caffeine break, we stopped at the 7-Eleven at the end of Soi Rambuttri to buy some water. We still hadn't seen any evidence of people disappearing, but did spot a frightening solider laying in wait inside a shop across the street.

Perhaps he had something to do with people disappearing?

After walking another block we reached the legendary Khao San Road and saw something more alarming than the solider lying in wait - Ronald McDonald greeting customers with a wai. 

People in Thailand rarely shake hands. Instead they place their hands together in a prayer-like gesture known as the wai. The degree of respect shown while greeting is dependent upon how high the hands are held; the higher they are held, the more respect shown.

With his hands held higher than Becky's, Ronald obviously is giving her undue respect

Expecting to disappear at any moment, we were accosted by touts selling street food, cheap tailored suits, and massages. Khao San was also humming with the sounds of wooden frogs made by hill tribe women dressed in traditional garb.

Corn on the cob from a street vendor - or as Thai people call it, maize

Massages in Bangkok? Who knew!

Are the hills really alive with the sounds of frogs?

No backpacker ghetto is authentic without a Tom Yum Kung soup kitchen next to a 7-Eleven 

Ambling further down Khao San, we decided we could disappear by changing out identities. Such a plan was unlikely unless we could find a place that would sell us a new driver's license and maybe a diploma or two. Perhaps we could also obtain a press card and disappear as boring old Becky and Jason and take on new identities world famous foreign correspondents. But where could we find all that?

There has to be a place that sells fake ids, diplomas, and press cards around here somewhere.

Frustrated that we couldn't find any evidence of people disappearing, we did what every good American does when faced with adversity - find some food to eat.  We had heard so much about the street food on Khao San that we stopped at the nearest food cart and pointed to what appeared to be some smallish french fries. After Becky took a bite, we looked closer at the cart and discovered that those were no french fries.

This food rocks me like a hurricane

Thai French Fries in the middle?

Becky after her first bite of a meal worm

Meal worms, scorpions, giant cock roaches, beetles - now those food items really did make us want to disappear! We took one last look around at the various stores and agencies selling items such as travelling-tickets, visas, guidebooks, luggage storage, and phone and laundry services and realized that Khao San was the perfect launching spot to go anywhere in Asia. And that is what Susan Orlean meant when she said Khao San was the place to disappear.

Because we had heard that the sun sets quickly in the tropics, we began our three mile trek back to our hotel as we approached evening. A few blocks from Khao San, we came across Democracy Monument, commemorating a June 1932 military coup d'etat that led to Thailand's first democratic constitution.

Apparently, the construction of the monument in 1939 was not popular among the locals as hundreds of trees providing shade from the tropical sun were cut down. Residents and shopkeepers were also evicted from their homes and businesses in order to build the monument. What a wonderful testament to Democracy, eh?

Stalinist looking monument that symbolizes democracy

We wandered up Ratchadamnoen Avenue, a historic road inspired by that avenue of all avenues, the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and encountered our first occupied Bangkok Shutdown site. Ratchadamnoen Avenue was barricaded with sandbags at a major intersection involving several streets and canals.The avenue was also lined with tents and a large stage for speakers and musicians. However, when we arrived, not much was happening - there were a few folks listening to a speaker on the stage.

Sandbags ready to stop a flood of police

We were a little spooked to approach because the day before 1 person was killed and 30 wounded by a grenade attack at another protest site in Bangkok. We scurried through the protest site as we needed to cross it in order to head back in the direction of our hotel. Although all was calm the evening we walked through, a month later, four people were killed when the police tried to clear the site of protesters. On our way back, we continued to see things you would never see in the west.

Children's car seats are optional when driving in Southeast Asia

This rapping Buddha would give Tupac a run for the money

We began to flag, becoming overcome by jet lag and hunger. We had a quick dinner a few blocks from our hotel at a hole in the wall cafe whose food was prepared on a sidewalk grill.

Becky disguises herself as a local by using chopsticks

As night fell on the City of Angels, we contemplated all the interesting things we had seen and experienced during our first full day in Southeast Asia. Though we probably saw nothing stranger than the pink eggs that were lying outside various establishments that night. Known as Century Eggs or Horse Urine Eggs, these eggs have been preserved for several weeks in order to turn the insides black and gelatinous. Horse Urine Eggs - who wouldn't work up a zesty appetite with a name like that?

As John Cougar Mellencamp sang - "Little Pink Eggs, for You and Me."

Reaching our hotel, Becky's pedometer told us we had walked 20 miles in the day. We disappeared into bed, exhausted.

Next up, shopping and political protests - a great combination.