Architecture To Take Your Breath Away
I’m delighted you can spend a few days with me visiting a great city. I was born in Chicago and my father’s printing business, The Black Cat Press, was located at 510 N. Dearborn. Though I grew up in Evanston, just north of the city on the lake, I can never remember a time when Chicago didn’t figure into our lives whether it was Cubs baseball, The Black Hawks, The Bears, The Chicago Symphony, the theater, shopping at Marshall Fields or eating with my parents at their favorite little Italian family neighborhood restaurant called Lou (something or other) where I finally was able to finished an entire plate of spaghetti.
The Gold Coast along the Outer Drive on Lake Michigan
As we make our way into the city, I want to show you several homes that survive amongst the high rise condos in the Gold Coast area of Chicago. Part of the novel I’m working on is set in this area. As a little girl, I sat on the back seat of my parents car looking out the window at this beautiful scene along the lake. In the following paragraph you will see I have never forgotten what is there.
Important to this lake front scene are the elegant apartment buildings that line the West Side of the Outer Drive. Katherine grew up wondering about the people who lived in these expensive properties always enthralled with the exquisite interior photographs in a magazine like Architectural Digest. She imagined an urban and sophisticated couple saying good evening to their doorman before asking him to hail a taxi to take them to some smart and expensive restaurant. Given Katherine’s disposition, she believed the occupants of these lovely buildings were living rich and interesting lives in a beautiful and fascinating city. Now at age sixty-one Katherine owns one of these amazing apartments. She picked the historic Gold Coast area to move to, part of Chicago’s Near North Side community, roughly bounded by North Avenue, Lake Shore Drive, Oak and Clark Street……..
Here is a link for the Architectural Tour Boat Ride that will make for a happy few hours of sight seeing.
Below are wonderful examples of Chicago architecture.
The Palmer House Hotel
The Staircase at the Rookery Building
Chicago Water Tower
Hurry up now, we have more to see!
That architecture is just wonderful. 🙂
Beautiful! This is neat, thanks for sharing your trip.
Phenomenal architecture, which is why we love this city! We took the river tour the last time we were there and loved all the buildings.
I love these reflections of Chicago. My grandmother grew up in Cicero in the early 1900’s. Then, the neighborhood was mostly Bohemian and my grandma told stories of men carrying buckets of beer down the street to their homes of her cooking experiences rolling cookie dough out on their freshly scrubbed kitchen floor. Chicago has so many stories!!
Gorgeous photos! I teach English as a second language in Taiwan, and one group of my students are architecture majors. I can’t wait to show them your photos! 🙂
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