Chicagoppopocampe: A City to Make Love To
18 July 2005
Mean, lean steel machines. Bam! A tower here. Raw. Bam! A tower there. Architecture. Bam! Bam! Chicago, Illinois. I like it. My brother Daniel and I are here to visit this dude. We took the time to have a good feel of what it is to live in Chicago.
Click-Pan-Click-Pan-Click!
— Eric, do you know how to stitch?
— Only in Photoshop my dear.
A nice thing about Chicago is that, unlike the other big cities on the great lakes, they kept the waterfront open to the public instead of building industries or harbors (whom in this case are built further from downtown) and the city around it. Like in a dream, you’re in Michigan lake cooling off and right behind you is the big chicago skyline, watching over you. It’s quite surrealist when you see it for the first time.
Full size panorama
Bricks, mortar and steel
There is more to Chicago than the architecure, obviously. The parcs, the people, the music, the cultural scene are only some of it’s many assets. But the architecture and urbanism have such a profound impact on all the other aspects of the city life; and being there, it is almost impossible to overlook it.
I (heart) Chicago. So many cool neighborhoods, great music scene, great museums, and it’s really people-friendly. I think it’s one of the US cities I would have absolutely no questions about moving to. I love the old part of the city; at night, especially in the rain, they’re all lit up and monumental: it looks just like Gotham City from the Batman movies. In fact, if you look closely at the overhead views of the city in Batman Begins, you’ll actually see the Wrigley building and other Chicago landmarks digitally inserted.