As a Globe Correspondent, I was invited to attend the 10th Annual Boston Globe Travel Expo at the Seaport World Trade Center last weekend.
Cruises dominated the areas nearest the entrance and Aruba had a huge presence. All I could think was “Norovirus” and “Natalee Holloway”. I moved quickly past both.
I wanted to see what companies might be offering different travel experiences – who would be…
"On the Corner" is a series on Chicago Architect Online, written by Max Grinnell, aka the Urbanologist. (Follow him on Twitter @theurbanologist.)
Grinnell is a professor of urban studies and writer, public speaker and proponent of all things urban. “On the Corner” features Grinnell’s take on iconic Chicago corners, examining the interaction between architecture, public space and the Chicagoans who bring these intersections to life.
Damen & Ainslie
As the #50 bus sighs and moves through the intersection of Damen and Ainsle in the Ravenswood neighborhood, the light fades just a bit more. It's an afternoon in November and the sun is sliding, sliding, sliding away.
I look at my watch. It's 3:46. Thank you again, Daylight Savings time. It's time to explore a new Chicago corner
This particular corner is just like many hundreds of corners in Chicago that are largely passed over by bus tours, foot tours, foodie tours, or architecture tours. Attention must be paid, of course, because these are the corners where most Chicagoans live, recreate, drink, get their hair done, and worship. Damen & Ainslie is a fine corner as it has all of those things.
Walking on the east side of Damen, you will first encounter the modest two-story brick building at the southeast corner that is home to a sports bar (aren't they all these days?) known as Gio's. Above Gio's are a set of apartments that qualify this building as "mixed-use" in the parlance of today's urbanists. When the building was built, no one knew that term. I like to think of this building as "full-use": Convivial sports bar at ground level, residents residing above.
Look closely and walk north across Ainslie to the northeast corner. You're in front of a garden variety Chicago apartment building with a warren of 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. Ho hum, perhaps. But wait, wait, wait: ground floor retail with a sign outside: "Kids R Welcome/Fades/Razor Cut/Up Dos." And so on.
It's a personal service outlet, a real one-of-a-kind, but really just-like-many-kinds establishment. Beauty Attraction is its name and they do a bit of everything. It's a cinch that when this building was erected eight or nine decades ago this was the jewel in the crown. Perhaps it was a ladies clothing shop? A green grocer? Today it serves the same purpose: it's the eye-catching large display windows that tell-all and show all. Come in, sit down, get a manicure. Talk with neighbors. See what's going on.
It's not the type of place that anyone outside the neighborhood will gush about (hell, they don't even have a review on Yelp), but it's a nice addition, a place that offers a bit of variety amidst the walk up buildings, elaborate new condos, and other large chunks of the built environment.
Now walk west across Damen. Be careful, the cars are hesitant to stop fully. You're standing in front of the Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church. The places where men and women pray together in Chicago are scattered throughout the city as if they were mustard seeds, tumbling down on corners from Dunning to Grand Crossing. Modest, grandiose, store-front, many-fronts, they all serve their respective communities in place. Until we have hologram churches (the next logical step for megachurches perhaps?), people will still flock to physical places for communion and community.
What do I like best about this place for communion and the like? It presents a solid, up-to-the street face right on the sidewalk. Above the main entrance you'll find the words "Enter His Gates With Praise". It's an iteration of Psalm 100 and one that seems pleasant to the casual stroller. Who doesn't like praise? The "His" part? Well sure, we might be able to quibble with that In This Progressive Century, but that's a trifle. The passerby is welcomed by this phrase and bonus: the parking lot for the church is north of the main entrance and its entrance doesn't break up the experience of standing on the corner.
Point your feet south and cross over to the southwest corner. This is a mighty fortress of modern urban living. As I walk by, I wonder if Rapunzel might let down her hair if I call up to one of the dwelling units above. At eye level you'll see a sign advertising acupuncture services. Such a health care facility isn't meant to be open to the casual stroller. It's not a Gio's, not a Beauty Attraction, and that's fine.
It is part of a troubling trend though and the building's relationship to the street is what is most unsettling. It's the second cousin to the nameless and banal cookie cutter apartment buildings that sprung up in the late 1990s and early 2000s on a myriad of streets, including Lincoln, Halsted, and others. Dominated by rather basic and functional architectural ideals on the outside, they made things rain with their tricked out interiors (marble countertops all over, Vulcan appliances, floating stone benches in master bathrooms, etc.) that said "Yes, this private life is everything." For them, the public life down on the street, in the great out there, wasn't even an afterthought. It just wasn't a thought at all.
On the Corner: Clark and Van Buren by Max Grinnell
"On the Corner" is a new series on Chicago Architect Online, written by Max Grinnell, aka the Urbanologist. (Follow him on Twitter @theurbanologist.)
Grinnell is a professor of urban studies and writer, public speaker and proponent of all things urban. “On the Corner” features Grinnell’s take on iconic Chicago corners, examining the interaction between architecture, public space and the Chicagoans who bring these intersections to life.
Commerce, Incarceration and More
Any intersection in Chicago presents a wealth of opportunities for interaction with the built environment and the people passing by. Maybe you'll make a new friend, hear a curious sound, or catch a glimpse of an architectural ornamentation that strikes your fancy.
The South Loop is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the city and I find myself at the intersection of Clark and Van Buren as a matter of habit and intense curiosity. It has commerce that is both frenetic (the headquarters of CBOE, nee CBOT), laid back (submarine sandwiches), government functionalism, and a rather well-known site of incarceration.
Let us start at the northeast corner of the intersection, which can be summed up in one word: bollards. These stout fellows surround the Metcalfe Federal Building, which is described by the General Services Administration as being executed in the "style of Mies van der Rohe". A generous description, indeed. From the street level, I just think of the bollards as a remnant of the obsession with security concerns in the wake of 9/11. Has this assembly created a sense of security? Sure. Has it prevented possible harm to this structure and those who work within? Most likely. Is it a way to entice the casual visitor into the area surrounding the structure? Of course not. Security concerns here trump any consideration of public space and access on this corner. Perhaps it's for the best.
Walk across the street and stand right in front of the piercing point that marks the terminus of the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). To your left sits a public plaza that is sorely underutilized. Space is at a premium in the Loop and I always wonder: Why don't more people sit here to have lunch and contemplate discipline and punishment?
To the right is, well, in short, the rest of the relatively undistinguished block of South Clark Street. As an idea, as an urban moment, the MCCis a modernist moment to be savored and if you linger long enough, a correctional facility officer will inevitably answer your queries, architectural or otherwise. As many Chicagoans can recount, it has been the site of numerous dramatic escapes, including a recent one that involved a rope fashioned from bed sheets.
After this close consideration, walk across the street to my personal favorite. The southwest corner of Clark and Van Buren contains the type of retail milieu that used to be much more common in the South Loop. There's a no-frills sub shop, a serviceable Italian restaurant, and down Clark Street, a men's hotel, a down-tempo jazz club, and other decidedly non-chain establishments. Architecturally, this corner's got nothing. As a reminder of the messy, chaotic and run-down South Loop that has been largely snuffed out, it has everything. It's the Nelson Algren-esque contrast to the shiny, steely Oprah-style family-friendly environment of what transpired at Block 37. Explore this corner closely, my friends. It has secrets that are worth your time.
With a heavy sigh, cross over to the northwest corner of this four-way opportunity. It's the least interesting one, regrettably, and it is a temple of commerce that needs little introduction. It is just the backside of the Chicago Board of Exchange, the humming hive of futures, T-bonds, and residual pork bellies. It's a blank slate, a ho hum facade that tells pedestrians to keep on walking. I have never seen anyone pause here to consider this facade. But maybe I haven't been looking close enough.
Introducing the "On the Corner" Series on the Chicago Architect Online Blog
"On the Corner" is a new series on Chicago Architect Online, written by Max Grinnell, aka the Urbanologist.
Grinnell is a professor of urban studies and writer, public speaker and proponent of all things urban. "On the Corner" features Grinnell's take on iconic Chicago corners, examining the interaction between architecture, public space and the Chicagoans who bring these intersections to life.
Appropriately, the series kicks off with a look at Chicago's "first" corner, the intersection of State and Madison.
Chicago is a city of superlatives, and at times it has held the world's
busiest airport, the tallest skyscraper, the largest office building, and a
veritable cornucopia of stand-out, knock-down moments scattered amidst the built environment.
One of my favorite places to stand and observe people in all of Chicago is the World's Busiest Corner. You may know it as State and Madison, the zed and zed moment of pause, the place where all street addresses have their origins, their Ur-number moment, if you will. It acquired that sobriquet well over a century ago and it too was added to the list of Second City superlatives that has waxed and waned over the decades.
Chicago's starting point. State and Madison.
Nothing captures that thriving moment better than a short film captured by Thomas Edison's colleagues. They trained their cameras on that
frenetic corner and captured a melange of horses, streetcars, bowler-hatted men and women with bustles and other sartorial accompaniments.
When I first encountered State & Madison in 1994, times were tough. The pedestrian mall experiment of the 1970s was a bust and the few people taken advantage of the expansive sidewalks seemed to be pretzel vendors and sidewalk preachers extolling the virtues of the Bible.
The key to this revitalization is the removal of this pedestrian mall in
1996 and the rising economic tide that has carried most American cities (apologies Detroit) into the Roaring 2010s with a vigor that is most encouraging. The renovation and re-imagining of the built environment included the elaborate entrances to the Red Line stations, informative displays about the architectural marvels, and a return of period light fixtures. A certain historicity ruled the day and looking back to the past for the future made sense.
CityTarget, the latest tenant in Louis Sullivan's masterpiece.
Besides the robust retail shops on each corner and the bustle of a local populace (and visitors) that have come back to this intersection, I can recall one recent addition to this environment: the Lightscape
installation. As I listen to the music and I watch people stop, even for a moment, I am greatly heartened. This is a good urban moment, where people are encouraged to pause, reflect, if even for a few seconds. Every intersection should be so fortunate and it adds something that is unique, even if this assemblage was only a temporary addition.
Max Grinnell is writer, college lecturer, consultant, public speaker, and most importantly, an urbanologist. Cities and the urban environment are his passion and his writings on cities have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Boston Magazine, the Guardian, and other publications. Over the past fifteen years, he has criss-crossed the country giving talks on his work, along with teaching urban studies at Boston University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin. You can learn more about his work at www.theurbanologist.com and follow his trail of tweets @theurbanologist.
Urbanologist Max Grinnell drops in to talk movies and haikus (but mostly movies). Max joins hosts Brian Babylon and Molly Adams to play clips from films that prominently feature a city in a non-speaking role. They talk about some of their favorite movies that capture the essence of a city - everything from classics like the Blues Brothers to more obscure films like Mickey One.
