Tag: Architecture

Jeddah Tower is only 3½ miles from an airport runway. That might be a problem.

I started repairing hail damage and accidentally created a large-scale exterior art installation.

Giving an urban icon a second life, then watching that life quietly fade. One of the few buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire, the Chicago Water Tower still stands on Michigan Avenue. It’s part of the identity of Chicago.…

The 2005 Rock ’n’ Roll McDonald’s was torn down and replaced with a lifeless version.

In 1932, an illustrator drew a window washer for Fortune magazine. In 2007, I photographed a window washer from my desk at Tribune Tower. Same view? Maybe.

Did you hear how the Empire State Building’s Twitter (X) account is picking fights with the Chicago Bean? Someone tweeted about the Chicago Bean reopening. The Empire State Building tweeted with a video saying sarcastically, “Clap if you care” Here…

Today via my blog, someone found out that their dad installed the giant broadcasting antennae on the Tribune Tower in the 1930s. My post about the Tribune Tower observation deck included those who inscribed their names on the wall below…

Who knew the Eiffel Tower could wear so many different hats? Each day, a creative prompt reshapes its familiar lines into something new.

What stands at the very top of the iconic Tribune Tower? And how I did I discover this room?

An enormous flag with odd inscriptions was raised on the Eiffel Tower today. Just as the sun was starting to rise over Paris at 5:15am, a giant flag was being hoisted up the world famous tower. At 12:41pm, the flag…

In 1869 Paris would these buildings be new or really old?

This is one of my favorite things on the internet. The past 24 hours of the Eiffel Tower in a one-minute time lapse animation. This one-minute video file is constantly updated throughout the day to reflect the past 24 hours…

Empty lots are fascinating. The natural growth that naturally occurs in the desolate, unattended land. Plants sprouting up, giving life. The fence sign declares no trespassing. Don’t even think about stepping foot onto this land. However, someone ignored this warning,…

Two of my favorite things have crossed roads. The Chicago Picasso and Estonia. While walking to work on a Monday morning, a giant photo Arvo Pärt (the Estonian composer) greeted me right by the Chicago Picasso. Wow! What is this?!…

The Chicago Cultural Center is home to the world’s largest Tiffany glass dome. It’s beautiful. I love the Cultural Center. Now that I work across the street from this wonderful landmark, I’ve been eating my lunches in the room on…

Goodbye, Tower. I just left the Tribune Tower for the last time. On my way out, I made a giant five-foot wide pencil rubbing. Here’s a four-minute video with me narrating its creation along with a time-lapse. Etched into the…

Many of the Tribune journalists have been tweeting and writing emotional stories about leaving the Tribune Tower. The Tribune big columnists are writing some very poignant stories. Page two columnist John Kass, architecture critic Blair Kamin, Pulitzer-Prize winner Mary Schmich…

One more week in the Tribune Tower. Next Friday, we move. Word around is that right after we move, the entire building is being gutted. Right away. We aren’t allowed to come back. The following Monday we immediately go to…

In less than two months, the Chicago Tribune will be moving out of Tribune Tower, into the Prudential Building four blocks south on Michigan Avenue. From 1925 to 2018, we’ve been here for 93 years. And now we are leaving…

I stood in a Walgreens dish soap aisle for two minutes recording a video of the store window. Why? Because this Walgreens, in the historic Wrigley Building, features a fantastic view of 34 flags of all the South and North…

[Update: Apple has explained they do have a heated roof. Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune reports: “The roof has a warming system that’s built into it,” Apple spokesman Nick Leahy said. “It needed some fine-tuning and it got re-programmed…

Do you ever feel like creating personas for your favorite buildings? In this podcast, I explore a couple art project ideas to give fun identities to architecture. I have 18 podcasts recorded in 2009. Every week, I will post one…

The giant magenta mural stood out in the corner of my eye while crossing the street. I thought, “isn’t that László Moholy-Nagy?” I had been walking away from the mural, but I re-crossed the street to get a closer look.…

Northeast bridgetower at sunset A fog crawls over the Chicago River. Fog can create amazing scenes. Get close enough to the subject, and it really pops as the background is covered in a blanket of fog. Couple that with a…

The sun sets on Monday, two days after the Chicago River was dyed green for the St. Patrick’s Day festival. The Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and Equitable Building admire how bright green the river is. You can’t quite tell, but…

The Tribune Tower has many locked doors leading to secret closets. Walk down any hallway, and you are sure to encounter a locked door that leads to a mysterious place. One of these such doors is on the 14th floor…

Every day Flickr ranks the top 500 photos posted to popular photo sharing service. 1.4 million photos are posted to the service every day, so to be ranked in the top 500 is quite an achievement. In 2014 alone, I…

Many of Chicago’s iconic buildings are white today, because of an unknown artist working today. This artist has managed to keep his identity relatively unknown for the past hundreds of years. He’s also managed to stay alive for the past…

Old skyscrapers falling apart because of their limestone exterior. Over time the limestone becomes weak and crumbles. Restoration projects take quite some time to replace the damaged limestone. The Crains Communication building in Chicago is going through an extensive limestone…

Do you love amazing views? Do you love amazing architecture details? The next place you should visit is–surprise! Walgreens. Walgreens recently moved 40 steps from its cramped quarters above the Billy Goat into the first and second floor of the…

Funny seeing these two photos next to each other in my flickr photostream. One a tower built of glass and steel. The other, made of plastic magazine racks. Both have a gleaming highlight stream across their surface. One a desirable…