#prudential plaza

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Urban Sophistication 🏙️

Music is liquid architecture. Architecture is frozen music.

∼Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[rabbitcruiser]

Aon Center, Chicago

The Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street, formerly Amoco Building) is a modern supertall skyscraper in the Chicago Loop, Chicago, Illinois, United States, designed by architect firms Edward Durell Stone and The Perkins and Will partnership, and completed in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the third tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by the Willis Tower and the Trump International Hotel and Tower. The building is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle, which is also headquartered in the building. Aon Center formerly had the headquarters of Aon and Amoco; Aon's US operations are still headquartered here.

When completed, it was the world's tallest marble-clad building, being sheathed entirely with 43,000 slabs of Italian Carrara marble. The marble used was thinner than previously attempted in cladding a building; this quickly proved to be a mistake. On December 25, 1973, during construction a 350-pound marble slab detached from the façade and penetrated the roof of the nearby Prudential Center. In 1985, inspection found numerous cracks and bowing in the marble cladding of the building. To alleviate the problem, stainless steel straps were added to hold the marble in place. Later, from 1990 to 1992, the entire building was refaced with Mount Airy white granite at an estimated cost of over $80 million. (Amoco was reluctant to divulge the actual amount, but it was well over half the original price of the building, without adjustment for inflation.) Two-thirds of the discarded marble was crushed and used as landscaping decoration at Amoco's refinery in Whiting, Indiana, one-sixth was donated to Governors State University, in University Park, Illinois, and one-sixth donated to Regalo, a division of Lashcon Inc. Under a grant from the Illinois Department of Rehabilitative Services, Regalo's 25 handicapped workers carved the discarded marble into a variety of specialty items such as corporate gifts and mementos including desk clocks and pen holders. The building's facade now somewhat resembles that of the former World Trade Center due to the upward flow of the columns.

Source: Wikipedia

[themanonfive]

Looking southeast towards Illinois Center, Prudential Plaza and Aon Center from the rooftop of the Hard Rock Hotel (Carbide & Carbon Building), Chicago. Photo by The Man On Five (June 2017)

[emaadsidiki]

Chicago 🏙️

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Chicago 🏙️

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Cirrus SR22 Sky High Chicago ☁️🛩️🏙️

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Windy City Wonderland 🏙️

[theliterateape]

Enjoying the Perks of Novel Coronavirus COVID-19

By David Himmel

Yesterday, novel coronavirus COVID-19 had a big day in Chicago. It gave Mayor Lori Lightfoot enough reason to cancel the city’s famed St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, which include the dyeing green of the Chicago River and the South Side Irish Parade. Not only will these cancelations help reduce the risk of the virus spreading, in the case of the latter, it will help reduce the number of wealthy white boys in black North Face vests from puking up hot dogs, blood, and bile on a poorer family’s front stoop. News also broke of the first confirmed case at a major downtown business hub, Prudential Plaza. The employee of CA Ventures, a tenant at One Prudential Plaza.

I work in Two Prudential Plaza. These two buildings are connected. They’re also connected to the Aon Center by a small passageway anchored by a Panda Express on the south. Prudential Plaza is also directly connected to the underground Chicago Pedway which connects to more office buildings to the west and three different train lines. Thousands—I can’t find an exact number, but thousands—of people work and/or pass through these places every single day of the work week. The buildings are still open for business, but my office has decided to close until at least next Friday. Everyone is working remotely. These are precautions I fully support.

This virus outbreak, now officially a pandemic is making things weird. The world around us is confusing and ever more empty as people self-quarantine. Door knobs are sinister, a person who coughs or sneezes in any public space is met with more disdain than someone who talks loudly on their cellphone in an elevator. Italy is closed. The NBA is closed. Jesus, even Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have tested positive for the virus.

COVID-19 is coming for our favorite food, our favorite professional sports league that doesn’t have cheating champion teams, and the one Baby Boomer white man of all America can get behind. Things seem bleak. But after spending forty years in this body and several thousands of dollars on therapy, I am well-equipped to find the silver lining in any situation. I’d tell you that I’m a positive person in moments of crisis, but I feel that telling you I’m positive in this climate would only scare you off.

Regardless, I want you to know that there are perks to this pandemic. You just gotta know how to find ’em.

Get a seat on the Blue Line

On most workdays, you will have to wait four or five Blue Line trains before you can barely squeeze your way into a car if you’re heading toward Forest Park east of Western between 7:501 and 8:47 a.m. But with so many offices closing or strongly encouraging employees to work from home, hoping on at 8:15 is not only simple, but comfortable. The cars have room to spare.

No wait

Reservations aren’t needed. Fewer people are going out, which means you can get the best seat in the house just by showing up. It feels like you’re Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. Even Alinea is taking walk-ins.

It helps you finally stop biting your fingernails

I’ve basically been trying to stop biting my fingernails for thirty years. But no matter how far I got, I’d always, always find myself chewing and nibbling at my fingertips. This pandemic has done wonders in helping me kick this habit. It’s been at least two weeks since I’ve had a bite. Do you have any idea how hard it is to break a habit like this!? I’m not one to ask for praise—that demand is the mark of a toddler or woke white woman—but if I can stay off the keratin for good, I deserve as much praise as someone who overcame opioid addiction.

Biting your nails is gross. I’ve always known that. This habit has been my greatest shame that I’ll admit to in public. Biting your nails and unintentionally eating a deadly virus is even grosser.

With your new nails, you can scrape away gunk from just about any surface

Having fingernails is awesome. Every surface in my home that has been touched by my sticky son and gooey wife is now gunk-free. With just a flick of my thumb and that glob of whatever is loose and into the paper towel to be carried to the trash. And then I’m off to wash my hands because, well, yuck.

You can fart in elevators

Go on. Push it out. Fill the metal box with all of your gutted butt funk. If someone gets on and smells your stench, so what. Stare ’em down. Apologize for the odor. Tell them you were just diagnosed with COVID-19. A new strain. One that affects flatulence. They’ll be so worried that breathing in your ass blast will give them the virus, they’ll forget all about you. And in a few months, when things are close to back to normal and they board the elevator with you again, they won’t remember your face at all—just the smell of your insides as they hotboxed an elevator.

There’s plenty of time for you to do you

Social-distancing. Ah… My Myers-Briggs personality test told me that I am extroverted but like solitude. So, because that’s what it told me, I’m going to get a real kick out of being alone for a bit. Because my company has closed the office for at least the next week-and-a-half, I won’t get to enjoy the empty Blue Line, but I can enjoy social-distancing. I did partake in the practice on my own accord in 2010 and 2011. I consider them two of my best bachelor years.

Enjoy quality and affordable healthcare

Our president said it, and when has he ever lied to us? Insurance companies are waiving co-pays and for treating COVID-19. And it sounds like the Feds are ready to help out if people need money to pay for treatment. So, the great healthcare that has been so impossible to give to the American people is, apparently, now, without fanfare or what could possibly be considered difficulty, available to everyone.

Traffic is light

To and from work. To and from the grocery store. To and from UPS to return something to Amazon. Traffic moves like it’s 6 a.m. on a Sunday. And with the NBA all shuttered up, there’ll be no traffic to battle on game nights. We can only hope that Major League Baseball follows suit. It’ll also give teams more time to come up with new hand signals since the Astros are thieving bastards.

So, there you go. Have fun during these last few days on earth. Remember, even though we’re all going to die, it’s your fault for not washing your hands that one time.