[September 30, 2010] Angry Birds, Virgin Hotel, Old Dearborn National Bank, Rapp and Rapp, 1928

[January 19, 2017] Thompson Center, dusk

[August 15, 2010] Ball and spoke, Navy Pier

[April 23, 2017] Sunbathers with dog - Happy Halloween!

[June 13, 2011] Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, Erik Blome sculptor

[October 9, 2009] Rorschach test, Millennium Park

[October 21, 2017] Mannerist Towers

[October 19, 2017] Stub Hub: Among the towers of North Michigan Avenue, a stunning new Apple Store Town Center opens at Pioneer Court.
See all the historical, construction and night unveiling pics in our photoessay here.

[May 8, 2010] . . . and now for something completely different: Black Cat with Vase

[October 15, 2017] Open House Chicago: Top-down Unitower

[October 16, 2016] Open House Chicago: St. Benedict the African Roman Catholic Church

[September 30, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial: Branding

[September 30, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial, green grid (Infinitely Intimate, Karamuk * Kuo Architects)

[September 25, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial: Megamansion Idyll, Keith Krumwiede, Atlas of Another America

[September 25, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial, tiny furniture - The Grand Interior, MAIO

[September 16, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial, ice cream tower, Pascal Flammer

[September 16, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial, brick weave x 3 - Robotic Craftsmanship, Archi-Union

[September 16, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial, cleaning the Barcelona Pavilion, pre referendum - Morning Cleaning Mies van der Rohe Foundation Barcelona, Norman Kelley

[September 16, 2017] Chicago Architecture Biennial and ceiling

[September 14, 2016] South of the Golden Gate

[September 3rd, 2013] Beach Week: Last Day of Summer

[September 5th, 2016] End of Summer Beach Week: Inlets

[September 5th, 2016] Beach Week: Lifeguard with Clouds

[September 3rd, 2012] Beach Week: Pink Beach Palace

[September 9, 2016] End-of-Summer Beach Week: Crissy Field, San Francisco

[October 9, 2010] Runners on the beach

[April 10, 2011] Beach Trio, North Avenue

[July 2, 2017] Beach with skyline and clouds

[July 30, 2010] Look out Behind You! (Woman with Giant Rat)

[September 29, 2009] China National Day observance, Daley Plaza

[April 17, 2009] Before Sunrise, opening of Illinois Holocaust Museum, Stanley Tigerman architect

[August 13, 2010] Triangles with Blue Angels, Air and Water Show

[March 28, 2017] Community Meeting, 42nd Ward

[August 28, 2010] 1610 West Jackson with red car and adjoining porsches porches

[August 13, 2011] Bud Billiken Parade
This year's parade kicks off at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Oakwood Boulevard, 10:00 a.m., Saturday, August 12th.

[June 25, 2011] Landing, Poetry Foundation (John Ronan, 2011)

I. [March 22, 2013] Picasso sculpture, Daley Plaza, Chicago

Eight Ways of Looking at Pablo Picasso's sculptural gift to Chicago, on the 50th anniversary of its unveiling

It was 50 years ago today, August 8, 1967, that Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago pulled on a cord and the tarp covering the Pablo Picasso sculpture fell away. II. Civic Center - now Daley Plaza, August 8, 1967 (photo source: DCASE) The Chicago Tribune's Ron Grossman has an excellent story - with a great video featuring Chicago Cultural Historian Tim Samuelson - of the history of the sculpture's genesis and the largely stunned reaction with which it was originally received. At the time, it was fashionable to ridicule the Picasso, from politicians like 47th ward John Hoellen calling for it be torn down and replaced with a statue of Cubs slugger Ernie Banks, to the disdain from tough-guy hoi polloi like Studs Terkel and legendary columnist Mike Royko, who saw it as a cynical con job that somehow encapsulated all the corruptions of a very corrupt city. And perhaps they were correct. But time has its way, and over the decades the largest sculpture ever made by the greatest artist of the 20th century - while continuing to puzzle as to its content and meaning - has grown in the city's affection, to the point where today it is as beloved and iconic a presence and as potent an international symbol as the Water Tower, Marina City, or Wrigley Field. Tuesday, August 8th, 2017, from noon to 1:00 p.m., the city will be holding a party at Daley Plaza to celebrate "Everyone's Picasso"'s 50th birthday, including a restaging of the 1967 event "conceived by artist and historian Paul Durica." Participants are scheduled to include Orbert Davis, Tatsu Aoki, Avery R. Young and Edra Soto, the Chicago Children's Choice and After School Matters orchestra. For more information - including on other events taking place in conjunction with the 50th anniversary - check out the Facebook page.

III. [April 16, 2016] Teachers rally in front of the Picasso

IV. [September 21, 2012] Picasso and guy

V. [October 7, 2010] Picasso sculpture with Trevi Fountain

VI. [May 13, 2009] Picasso sculpture maquette, Art Institute of Chicago

VII. [October 15, 2016] Picasso sculpture and Daley Plaza
VIII. [June 28, 2016] Picasso sculpture at night

[September 13, 2016] Fresh (Hammersmith Building, San Francisco, Lansburgh and Joseph, 1907)

[June 18, 2009] Dapper man in white suit contemplates vanilla ice cream scoops pavilion (Burnham Pavilion, Millennium Park, UN Studio)

[June 5, 2010] Mixed Reactions

Marriage is a sacrament, and the actual ceremony most often takes place under the eye of God in a place or worship With the advent of photography, however, weddings also became public spectacles in search of dramatic backdrops. Michigan Avenue at the Wrigley Building, Jane Byrne Park at the Water Tower, the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo are places where you're often likely to see trolley buses disgorging bridal parties and their photographers trying to create the images that will sustain a lifetime of emotional memories. [August 6, 2011] Bridal Parade, Lincoln Park Zoo Nature Boardwalk The attire and grooming are the stuff of sacred ritual; while the subjects remain totally human, caught between moments of anxiety, boredom, restlessness and joy. [September 10, 2009] Happy Bride, Jane Byrne Park at the Chicago Water Tower And it's all done in the midst of the rest of us going about our regular and profane workaday lives. At times we pause a moment to stop and watch. Or take pictures. [August 6, 2011] Bride and Groom and Flowers, Lincoln Park Zoo Nature Boardwalk

[September 9, 2010] Chicago Theater (October 26, 1921) Rapp and Rapp

[August 13, 2011] Helmut Jahn's Mansueto Library (2011) cast stars on Walter Netsch's Regenstein Library (1970)

[April 10, 2011] Back to Back, lakefront promenade

[August 24, 2010] Chain Mail Facade, Fletcher Jones Audio/Volkswagen. Gensler.
Further reading (with more photos): Heavy Metal: chainmail on Clark, curves along the Mohawk.

Chain mail architecture: a dead letter? It looked like armor, but it barely lasted six years In 2010, the anonymous concrete building on Clark and Maple was giving a striking modernist facade designed by Gensler, with Thorton Tomasetti as structural engineers. The Dri-Design perforated corrugated metal panel system of anodized aluminum definitely set the building apart from the largely anonymous architecture nearby. And so I was surprised when I walked past a building Monday afternoon and realized that the bland, blank-walled facade was the same building. All traces of the corrugated alumnium had been scraped away, leaving behind something that looked pretty much like the generic clapboard-like white panels covering the dealership's neighboring building to the north. I'd love to know the story behind this. Did the innovative metal facade become damaged? Did it bend or break, to the point of needed to be removed in less than seven years? Or did the owners just become bored, or decided to go for a more neutral design that didn't distract from the merchandise? In any event, you can read our story from 2010 - and see more pictures here.

[July 12, 2009] 353 North Clark at Sunset. Lohan Anderson 2009
Further reading (with more photos): Erector Set on Clark Street.

[July 2, 2010] People's Gas Pavilion, Lincoln Park Nature Boardwalk, Studio Gang Architects, 2010.
Further reading (with copious photos): Reimagining Urban Eden: Studio/Gang and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo.

[July 15, 2017] IBM Self-Park, George Schipporeit, 1974.

[April 4, 2009] Auditorium Self-Park, c. 1952.

[April 10, 2010] Drummond Place stalked by purple dinosaur.

©2003-2017 Lynn Becker. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission strictly prohibited.