August 23rd 2015 Chicago, Illinois
Well a picture tells a thousand words - here we are at the Railway Station in Elgin with Kathy and Warren Reese a lovely couple we met on our Alaskan cruise 4 years ago. We woke up to a rather grey day in Elgin. Normally, the Chicago bound train boards from Platform 2 (the covered side) but since it was raining they decided they would board us on Platform 1, the side with no shelter! As Kathy said "if you want to make God laugh, have a plan"!
Us girls outside Willis Tower - also known as Sears Tower.
Crown Fountain at Millennium Park
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The Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture, named in honor of Chicago's Crown family and opened in July 2004. It was designed by Catalan conceptual artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of transparent glass brick towers. The towers are 50 feet (15 m) tall, and use light-emitting diodes behind the bricks to display digital videos on their inward faces. Construction and design of the Crown Fountain cost $17 million.
Weather permitting, the water operates from May to October, intermittently cascading down the two towers and spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face. To achieve the effect in which water appears to be flowing from subjects' mouths, each video has a segment where the subject's lips are puckered, which is then timed to correspond to the spouting water, reminiscent of gargoyle fountains; this happens roughly every five minutes. The park and fountain are open to the public daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Residents and critics have praised the fountain for its artistic and entertainment features. It highlights Plensa's themes of dualism, light, and water, extending the use of video technology from his prior works. The fountain promotes physical interaction between the public and the water in an artistic setting. Both the fountain and Millennium Park are highly accessible because of their universal design.[60]
The Crown Fountain has been the most controversial of all the Millennium Park features. Before it was built, some were concerned that the sculpture's height violated the aesthetic tradition of the park.[97] After construction, surveillance cameras were installed atop the fountain, which led to a public outcry (and their quick removal). However, the fountain has survived its somewhat contentious beginnings to find its way into Chicago pop culture. It is a popular subject for photographers and a common gathering place. While some of the videos displayed are of scenery, most attention has focused on its video clips of local residents, in which almost a thousand Chicagoans randomly appear on two screens. The fountain is a public play area and offers people an escape from summer heat, allowing children to frolic in the fountain's water.
Great shot of Chicago from Millennium Park.
The Bean or officially known as Cloud Gate....a fun sculpture!
Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Parkin the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed The Bean because of its shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It measures 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).
Kapoor's design was inspired by liquid mercury and the sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate's 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the "omphalos" (Greek for "navel"), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor's artistic themes, and it is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties.
The sculpture was the result of a design competition. After Kapoor's design was chosen, numerous technological concerns regarding the design's construction and assembly arose, in addition to concerns regarding the sculpture's upkeep and maintenance. Various experts were consulted, some of whom believed the design could not be implemented. Eventually, a feasible method was found, but the sculpture's construction fell behind schedule. It was unveiled in an incomplete form during the Millennium Park grand opening celebration in 2004, before being concealed again while it was completed. Cloud Gate was formally dedicated on May 15, 2006, and has since gained considerable popularity, both domestically and internationally.
Warren's not in the shot...someone had to take the photo!
How's this for making a statement - a stretched Hummer Limo.
Navy Pier as seen from the 23rd floor of The Lake Point Tower
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Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot-long (1,010 m) pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million. It was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and city planner Daniel Burnham and his associates. As Municipal Pier #2 (Municipal Pier #1 was never built), Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for lake freighters, and warehouses were built up and down the Pier. However, the Pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre–air conditioningera parts of the Pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. The Pier even had its own tram. Today, the pier is one of the most visited attractions in the entire Midwestern United States and is Chicago's number one tourist attraction.
25 August - Tomah, Illinois
