The Chicago Tribune Building
Finally I got the chance to get into Chicago on the Tuesday morning having had my only experience at the State/Lake El interchange the day before. The first impressions of the city were that it was huge, not quite as much of a concrete jungle as New York City and with a little bit more character of architecture. Chicago has some stunning gothic styled architecture, the Chicago Tribune building looks like it was taken straight out of Gotham City and the Batman movies. As you ride in on the train you notice that there is a lot of early 20th century architecture, of course after the Great Fire of Chicago in 1871 there wouldn’t be an awful lot else.
The El train system with Trump Towers
Chicago hit a boom during this period as did most of the USA and the El transit system is one of those things that the city got sorted during that time. All the lines meet in the middle of the city in what is known as “The Loop” which are the raised lines that travel above and around the inner city of Chicago. Most trains cover two sides of the loop and then travel out to another part of the city. The iron works and wooden platforms give that human feel to the city and despite it’s age it functions very well.
Unfortunately, at least for now there was work to be done. I was to be a key link between my company and the University of Sheffield and was going to have a busy few days to get as much work towards my project done as possible. The IMTS Exhibition is held at McCormick Place just south of The Loop, it is the largest exhibition centre in the USA at 248,000 square metres of exhibiting space which is divided up into four halls.
The View From McCormick Place
Therefore it takes a good 15 to 20 minutes to walk from one end to the other which sits on the shores of Lake Michigan. At the show was a whole range of engineering and machining related companies. This is the 4th largest machining show in the world so it was important to make your presence know. This meant that stands would range from very small and basic to grand and extravogant where millions of pounds have been spent getting things just right.
But enough of the work side of things it’s time to look at the city itself. At the end of each day I would go and join my colleagues at their hotel and we would head out for dinner in the city. The first night was a bit of a treat and we went up to the Hancock Tower’s 96th floor bar for a round of drinks just as the sun finished off setting. The view took my breath away. Simple as that. I’ve been up the CN Tower in Toronto and the Empire State Building in New York and the views you get from each are stunning. Because most North American cities are based on a grid system you can follow the rows of street lights and cars for, literally as far as the eye can see. The bright lights of Chicago and its suburbs on one side and the seemingly infinite blackness of Lake Michigan on the other make for a startling contrast between nature and man.
Chicago by Sunset
You cannot say that Chicago is a city done on half measures back in the 19th century engineers managed to change the flow of the Chicago River that runs through the downtown loop so that it flowed away from Lake Michigan and the city towards the Mississippi Basin. This was for sanitation reasons to prevent the cities waste that inevitably ended up in the river system from washing up on its own shores. While not really addressing the problem, just moving it somewhere less inhabited, it is still an incredible feat of engineering.
Marina City, Or the Corn on the Cob Towers
Some of the architectural styles in the city are wild and unique, Marina City is more affectionately know as the “Corn on the Cob Towers” for obvious reasons. It looks like a building from Captain Scarlett where there would be a car chase to the top only for it to blow up spectacularly (as everything did in Gerry Anderson shows.) Chicago is a city built on 4 levels with skyscrapers at the top, the El underneath it, ground level and then an underground level. Chicago is also famous for its network of underground roads and have been used in many a car chase scene and computer game with opportunities to cause crashes into the iron concrete foundations. Clearly they built all of this as a first stage after the fire that wiped the city out and the slip ways are tight and narrow so are becoming increasingly unsuitable for the larger cars produced today.
The Hancock Tower along with Trump Tower Chicago and the Willis Tower (formally known as the Sears Tower) dominate the skyline standing at 100, 92 and 108 stories tall respectively and make up 3 of the top 10 tallest buildings in North America and each have their own architectural style. Well worth a visit to all three should money and time not be a problem.
Chicago is well known for its food with Deep Pan Pizza and the search for the perfect steak being delicacies of the area. We sampled Pizzeria Due, sister pizza house to the world famous Uno and their pizzas are incredible. You must make this a stop if you go to Chicago. They were so deep and so filling that I could only muster enough capacity for 3 slices. As for steaks make sure you go check out Webber Grill, fantastic stuff.
US Celular Place: Home to the Chicago White Sox
Sports is another thing Chicago does big. With the Cubs and White Sox in baseball, Bears in the NFL, the Bulls in the NBA and the Blackhawks who are the reigning NHL Stanley Cup Champions. Unfortunately we were in town at the wrong time to go see most of these teams. The ice hockey and basketball teams were on their offseason and the Bears sell out within minutes of tickets going on sale. However the White Sox were in town all week and I went to go see them play the Minnesota Twins on the Thursday night. I don’t class myself as a baseball fan but I am starting to appreciate its appeal. I would have rather seen the Cubs play but you can’t get everything you wish for!
Sunday came around all too quickly and the show was over, objectives completed and it was time to pack up and go home. I headed over to O’Hare one more time and stood in a security queue for an hour and found on the other side that Terminal 5 (the main international terminal in what is the 4th busiest airport in the world) does not have restaurants, cafes or the grand concourses many other airports spoil us with. I was quite stunned at this to be honest. I expected a lot more for somewhere that took so many passengers but luckily the guys at KLM got us on the plane quickly and fed and watered very soon after we took off!
So that was it. My second and presumably final trip to the USA for 2010 and a fantastic one it was. I will have to go back to Chicago and explore properly away from work duties as I felt I didn’t go and see enough of the city during my time there. However I feel very fortunate and privileged to have travelled that far and wide so early in my career. I hope there is more to come, but not too soon! I have a massive pile of work to shift through over the next month. Deadlines need to be met and progress needs to be made!
