The Metra Market at the Concourse Level of the Ogilvie
Transportation Center. At this location are food vendors, a Metra
ticket office and restrooms. The Market also has access to all
platforms without having to go through the Accenture Center. Train
departures are listed next to all the entrances to the platforms.
Pic #5
Lake street bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River with
the Nuveen Building at 333 North Wacker in the background.
An office complex at 180 N. Wacker Drive that on the first floor
houses the Beatnik on the River.
The building on stilts is 110 N. Wacker Drive known as the Bank of
America Tower.
pic #10
View of the South Branch of the Chicago River.
The Randolph Street bridge.
View from the Lake Street bridge over the North Branch of the
Chicago River. The building on the left is Wolf Point Tower, the
brown building is a former cold storage building that was
converted to condos and the raised bridge is the UP (former
Chicago & North Western branch) that went to Navy Pier.
Wacker Ave
The Merchandise Mart. It was built by Marshall Field in 1930 as a
distribution center and warehouse for the company's wholesale
business. It was sold to Joe Kennedy in 1945 and converted to a
retail and design center. In 1998 it was sold to the Vornaso
realty Group. In the opening scene of the first Bob Newhart Show,
Bob is seen exiting the L at the Merchandise Mart station on the
Brown (Ravenswood) Line.
pic # 15
The Wells Street bridge over
the Chicago River with the Brown Line (Ravenswood) tracks on the
L tracks above the street (far right with yellow.) The brown
building with the tower is the Reid Murdoch Building. It is the
location where the Great Lakes steamship Eastland sank on July
24, 1915. Beyond the Reid Murdoch Building is Marina City. The
small red building is 325 N. Wells. It was formerly the Helene
Curtiss corporate headquarters. The tall black building is 300
N. La Salle. It is mixed use retail. restaurants and
office complex.
Beyond the Reid Murdoch Building is Westin Hotel and in the
background the tall building with the spire is Trump Tower/Hotel.
Marina City. Designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg and opened in
1960. This was revolutionary for it's time because it was hoped
that by designing a complete city withing a city, that it would
stem the flight from the city to the suburbs, The towers were
designed to look like corncobs to reflect the Midwest influence.
The building contained a movie theater (now the House of Blues),
and office complex ( now the Hotel Chicago), an ice skating ring
(now removed), a gym, restaurants and a marina.
No self parking here
Pic # 20
The Wrigley Building.
It was designed by the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson,
Probst and White as the headquarters of the Wrigley Company,
Phillip K Wrigley, President. For many years, the Wrigley family
owned the Chicago Cubs. Wrigley Field was the name given to Wegman
Park after the family bought the Cubs.
From the boat dock on the left is the Stone Container and the
Wrigley Buildings.
This is Riverpoint at 444 W. Lake Street. It is often referred to
as the McDonald's Building because the arch over the entrance
resembles the arches over the original McDonald's restaurants.
The sculpture Constellation by Santiago Calatravia constructed in
2019-2020.
pic # 25
This building's current name is Sales Force Tower. It was
originally named Wolf Point Tower, it is one of three high rise
buildings at Wolf Point developed by the Kennedy family.
The Groupon Building.
This was formerly the Montgomery Ward warehouse. When built,
it was the largest warehouse complex in the world. It was so large
that people would wear roller skates to pull item for shipment to
customers. In a quote from the WTTW Chicago Stories documentary
Rise and Fall of the Mail Order Giants, "What Amazon is doing
today, Sears and Montgomery Ward were doing 150 years ago.
The Chicago and North
Western bridge over the North Branch of the Chicago River. In
its heyday, the branch served the warehouses that located on the
North Side of the Chicago River and extended all the way to Navy
Pier. It last saw service in the 1970's delivering newsprint to
the Chicago Sun Times Building. Once a year, the bridge is
lowered and the Union Pacific runs a hi-rail truck over it to
satisfy the City of Chicago requirement to be an active bridge
even though the tracks have been severed in many locations.
This was the former site of Dearborn Street Station
trackage. The station has been preserved and as retail and
office space. The former station tracks and yards have
been redeveloped into this housing complex known as Dearborn
Park. The circular building is an apartment complex called
River City. It was designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg
in 1986 that is a combination of retail and residential
space. It has been said that the building's design was
influenced by Marina City.
Pic # 30
The marina at River City
Apartments. Some of the boats pictured are year around
residences.
The River City Apartments at
Dearborn Park and the Willis (Sears) Tower.
Willis Tower and the 311 Wacker Building.
Chicago Board of Trade Building. The building was designed by the
Chicago architectural firm of Holabird and Root and built to an
Art Deco design to replace a previous building on the site that
had become unsound. The statue on top of the building is an
aluminum three story tall Art Deco statue of Ceres, the Goddess of
Agriculture
Pic # 35
The Wells Street bridge with a Brown Line (Ravenswood) train on
the L tracks. The building straight ahead is Wolf Point Tower. It
is located on the the site of Fort Dearborn
The Merchandise Mart and the Franklin Street bridge.
Flag of Chicago.
The building on the left is
the Millie on Michigan Ave. It is a combination Citizen M Hotel
and luxury apartment complex. The Hotel address is 80 E. Wacker
Drive and Millie address is 88 E. Wacker Drive.
The building on the right is
the Carbide and Carbon Building. It was built in 1929 as an Art
Deco building as the headquarters of the Union Carbide Company.
It was designed by Burnham Brothers, the two sons of Chicago
architect Daniel Burnham. It is now the Chicago Pendry Hotel.
NBC Tower.
It opened October 1, 1989 and is the home of NBC owned Chicago
radio and television stations. It's design is very similar to 30
Rockefeller Plaza, the world headquarters of NBC.
The St.Regis Building aka Vista Tower designed by architect Jeanne
(pronounced Jeanie) Gang.
Pic # 40
Lake Point Tower.
A luxury apartment building built in 1968. Each apartment has a
spectacular view of either Lake Michigan or the Chicago skyline.
It is the only high rise east of Lake Shore Drive. A loophole in
the city's building code allowed it to be built.
The Chicago River Lock.
The Chicago river Lock was
built between 1936 and 1938 by the Sanitary District of Chicago.
It was built as part of the project to reverse the flow of the
Chicago River. Originally, the River flowed into Lake Michigan.
It was also the city's sewer system. Lake Michigan was and still
is the source of Chicago's drinking water. The direction of the
River was reversed to keep the sewage from flowing into the lake
and polluting the drinking water. It is now used to control the
amount of water that flows into the river from the lake after
complaints from other cities along the lake who feared that so
much water was being drained from the lake that it would lower
the lake's water level which would have a negative affect on
them.
The Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. It was built to commemorate the
original Ferris Wheel that was built for the 1893 World's
Colombian Exhibition. When Chicago was awarded the World's Fair,
the sponsors wanted something that would outdo the Eiffel Tower
that was built for the previous World's Fair in Paris. George
Ferris and his rotating wheel won the competition.
Views of the Chicago skyline from the boat.
Pic # 45
More views of The St. Regis Building.
Pic # 50
The Loop L. Along Wabash Avenue know as Jewelers Row because of
all the jewelry retailers and wholesalers located here.
Blade sign for Nederlander Theatre as seen from State St. and
Randolph.
The Nederlander Theatre.
This was originally the Oriental Theatre. When
it opened in 1926 it was a movie palace and vaudeville theatre
and closed in 1971. It was built as part of the Masonic Building
that served as a combined temple for several Masonic lodges. The
Masonic Building is now the Cambria Hotel. In the 1990's the
building reopened as the Oriental-Ford for the Performing Arts.
In 2018, the building was sold to the Nederlander Group and
renamed the Nederlander Theatre in honor of James Nederlander,
the founder of Broadway in Chicago.
In one of the most famous fires, a packed house
waited to see America’s favorite comedian, Eddie Foy, star in
the comedy “Mr. Bluebeard” at the Iroquois Theatre Dec. 30, 1903. Touted as
“completely fireproof,” the Iroquois was built that year and a
crowd estimated at 1,700 was there for a Christmas week matinee.
The audience watched the second act curtain rise and, as an arc
light shorted, ignite. In minutes the scenery was aflame, even
as Foy ordered the orchestra to strike up a tune and shouted to
the crowd, “Please be quiet. There is no danger.”
But soon the theater was roaring with flames. Men,
women and children howled as they rushed to the exits, many of
which were locked. Some people died from the fire itself, while
others were trampled and smothered to death. More than 600 were
killed, hundreds more injured.
The exterior of the Iroquois was largely intact and
later reopened as the Colonial Theater, which was demolished in
1925 to make way for the Oriental Theater. The Iroquois fire was
and remains the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest
single-building fire in U.S. history.
The CIBC Theatre.
When it opened in 1906, it was known as the Majestic Theatre and
was a vaudeville house. Like the Nederlander Theatre, it was also
part of an office complex know as the Majestic Building. The
theatre closed in 1932 during the Great Depression. In the 1940s,
the Shubert Organization purchased the building and renamed it the
Sam Shubert Theatre. In 1991, the building was purchased by the
Nederlander Organization. The office complex was converted into
the Hampton Inn Majestic Hotel. The theatre has had several name
changes between 2005 and 2017, mostly from local banks that won
the naming rights. It became the CIBC Theatre in 2017 after the
bank that held the naming rights was acquired by CIBC, a Canadian
banking company formerly know as the Canadian Imperial Bank of
Commerce.
Pic # 55
A Brown Line train at the Quincy Station from the corner of Adams
and Wells Streets. Quincy station is located between Adams and
Quincy on Wells Street.
Pic # 58
Willis Tower, 311 South Wacker and Old Post Office building with
express way that goes through building on lower left in this
picture taken next to my hotel, Holiday Inn on Harrison and
Clinton.
The Old Chicago Post Office was originally completed in 1921,
but underwent a monumental expansion in 1932 to meet Chicago's
unprecedented postal needs. The meteoric rise of the
mail-order industry, spearheaded by the Chicago-based
Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogs, transformed the city into
the distribution center of the nation nearly overnight. In its
postal heyday, the property was the largest of its kind in the
world, capable of shuttling an astonishing 19 million pieces
of mail daily. Though a lot has changed here since that time,
that same spirit of raw ambition will live on in these walls
for years to come.
After sitting
vacant for nearly two decades, The Old Post Office has
completed an $800 million renovation, the largest historic
redevelopment in the country. Today, the property boasts over
2.5M SF of stunning multi-use office and event space, and is
poised to once again become the central hub of Chicago's
business community.
With construction on the Sears Tower in
August, 1970, Sears was the worlds largest retailer (catalog
and retail stores.) The building was to replace the company's
inadequate headquarters on Hohman Avenue on Chicago's West
Side. Being the worlds largest retailer, company executives
wanted a headquarters building that reflected that. When it
opened in August, 1973, it was the world's tallest building
and held that title until 1989. In 1994, Met Life acquired an
ownership in the building, but Sears continued to own the
naming rights. In 2003, Sears naming rights to the building
expired but it still held the name Sears Tower. In 2009, The
Willis Group, a London based insurance company, bought the
naming rights and on July 16, 2009 the building became the
Willis Tower. The name change was not popular and many
Chicagoans still refer to the building as the Sears Tower.
Willis Group became the building's owner in 2011. They in turn
sold the building to the Blackstone Group in 2015. In 2024,
the naming rights to the building will expire.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/P7VHMB2ANBEHXJU5CIN7OPVADI.jpg)
