Chicago Visit August 2010: Art Institute Steps
Originally uploaded by O. Douglas Jennings
Precipices, bluffs and canyons are not exclusively features of a natural, weather-worn landscape. One of the things I love about down town Chicago is that the skyscrapers arranged in close proximity to one another in city blocks with wide avenues can mimic the unique lighting, wind patterns and grandeur of Earth-made canyons. At a certain time of day, shadows engulf one side of the man-made trenches at an angle which create a shady side while the facing ziggurats gleam in the diagonally slanting rays that further create slanting shadows in uniform crags and portals.
This echoing of more resplendent marvels of Nature might still retain the power to inspire a sense of awe to city dwellers not too inured by work-a-day scrambling and harried schedules to take the time to stop and look around them. And it's most lovely when taxi-ing between the synthetic bluffs along the Chicago River. It's no wonder such commercial transport is very popular in the fair-weather months.
Another canyon-effect I love about The City is the wind patterns. During one extremely hot Summer day, my nephew and I made our way by train to Chicago's down-town. I did not look forward to the several-block walk from Union Station to our destination, the Art Institute, in the 90-plus degree temperatures.
Much to my surprise, as we walked along the shaded side of the street, it wasn't so bad. And then, to our further delight, when we crossed over the bridge that spans the river and drew closer to the main down-town area, the tall buildings created a wind tunnel that carried refreshing breezes from Lake Michigan into our faces.
It can be noisy, crowded, expensive and overly-commercial, but the environment created by the architectural forms of The City still fill me with excitement and sense of vitality like nothing else.
EXTRA PHOTO: See the full crop of Chicago's Cloud Gate (The "Bean") at night!
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