Architects of the streets
Chicago has many buildings new and old, and each one of these buildings has their own story. My map points out the most important buildings from modern Chicago and old Chicago along madison street. Chicago being an architecturally diverse city, has many different types of buildings both built recently and many years ago. The map informs you with information about these buildings and what they mean to the city, through their historical significance and their locations. The map and the walking reflect on how Chicago has many different buildings, and their builders many different architectural types. The map is influenced by the buildings that stand out from the rest, the ones that catch the walkers eye and makes them stop for a moment and be taken back. Wondering about the building they are staring at, who built it, who designed it, who long has it been here? All questions my map intends to help answer.
We start down at the Ogilvie Transportation Center, designed and built by Frost and Granger In 1903, it was previously known as North Western Terminal before being remodeled and renamed after Richard B. Ogilvie in 1997. The old building has a small entrance encased in bronze colored metal. This particular section of the station has a minimalistic entrance leaves you in a way deterred from it being boring and confined. In the new section of the station it has large open spaces with huge glass windows allowing you to see all around. Giving you a reason to explore the building and find what it is all about.
Across the river we have the Civic Opera House, sporting an extravagant stone carved front, that leaves you in awe of the scale and perfection at which it was carved. The front is intended to draw people in and make them want to check out the buildings expertly crafted stone carvings coupled with the gradius size and scope of the building. The building even impressed me for a few moments. While some of the walls are the as Blair Kamin states “…the dreaded blank-walled look” (The growth of Chicago’s Super Loop: So much building, so little architecture), the front makes up for the blank wall located in the back. Created by Samuel Insull in 1929 to replace the Louis B. Sullivan’s Auditorium Building. Its carvings of plays above its entrance serve as an attraction for anyone who might pass by.
Continuing down from the Opera House there is the UBS tower housing many different companies. The tower takes up the whole block with windows all around it. The main lobby is always bustling with people coming to and going from work. The lobby, with its large open windows, gives the space a sense of openness to it allowing you to feel relaxed not claustrophobic like the entrance of old Ogilvie does. The lobby was also the first of its kind in the US. The UBS tower was thought up and constructed by Schott AG. Around the glass walled lobby are, planter disks that house trees and other greenery to provide shade for the passer by and allow nature to give an ascent to the large looming building that sits atop the lobby.
Down the street from the UBS tower, Is 200 West Madison tower (Real catchy name I know). The building features an elaborate facade of pillars, colored in with vibrant colors and in between them houses plants, all to break up the dull grays of the sidewalk and other buildings around them. Off to the right, the stone becomes a glass box with a large sculpture inside, adding interest to the the street appeal of the building. The sculpture that pulls everyone’s attention is what Nin-Hai Tseng is saying our city planners need to take into account when building spaces. “… one result is their unusually strong interest in trying to reinforce the natural attractions of the city’s streets” (Downtown is for People). Constructed in 1982 by Skidmore it is the 36th tallest building in Chicago.
Next up we have the Roanoke Restaurant a couple streets down from the tower on 200 West Madison. The restaurant interrupts the flow of the sidewalk, by jutting out its seating area. This “Interruption” in the path is what the sidewalks need to have to keep the walkers invested in the environment that they are in. When you have a empty open sidewalk, just the same as if all the buildings around it are flat faces with no detail or extra spice to keep people interested, the walkers will instead of walking to see the things around them in the area, walk to get through the area. So when the sidewalk are taken up and disrupting the walker’s path they will look to see what it is that blocks their path and become invested in the environment. With it being a new restaurant it embraces the ideals of walking and keeping the streets for the people.
Across the street to the right of Roanoke in the middle of three skyscrapers is a huge stone church called St. Peter’s Church. Built by Vitzthum & Burns in 1953, It is the largest most recognized catholic church in the Chicago area. While it is mostly a flat faced stone wall, the giant statue of Jesus on the cross looms over the street. The large doors at the front are light with warm lights that invite you to enter in to experience the different atmosphere, than that of the businesses that encompass the space all around the church. It make you feel interested, and makes you want to check it out, for none of the other buildings even resemble it.
Finally at the end of Madison street we have the Target. Built by the mentor to Frank lloyd wright, Louis Sullivan to replace the old Carson’s store in the corner building. With the great iron facade lining the whole of the building’s bottom floor, it gives the building a sense of importance and it stands out amongst the other buildings such at the towers that surround it and even the upper floors of the building that rests upon it. The expertly crafted iron accompanied by the large windows gives you a sense of awe when you look upon the exterior of the buildings first floor. The Target always has people coming and going from it, always in motion.
Where you live is an important part to understand for everyone, it not only impacts how you walk, but also how you live. Maps are meant to be “Propositions”(Krygier & Wood 12) that show something in one's own perspective about a place and such is mine. My map shows how people who live on and around Madison street, use the buildings that dot the street from start to finish as well as the shops that reside in them. The people get around downtown mostly by walking everywhere, it almost always beats driving a car to your destination and Madison street encumpases this fact. The buildings often do not have much parking for drivers forcing them to have to find parking else where, while allowing the pedestrians and walkers, easy access to the stores and workplaces that each building holds. The catering to the walker is furthered by the large expansive sidewalks that allow for hundreds of people to get to each one of the buildings without feeling cramped.
Over all my map of Madison street shows the new and the old buildings, and how they are intended to be perceived by the walkers. It touches on how each of the buildings I selected makes people feel, as well as giving some of the factual history about each building.
Citations:
“Ogilvie Transportation Center.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Oct. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogilvie_Transportation_Center.
Kamin, Blair. “The growth of Chicago’s Super Loop: So much building, so little architecture.” Chicagotribune.com, 10 Sept. 2017, www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kamin/ct-chicago-building-boom-kamin-met-0903-20170908-column,amp.html.
“Downtown is for People (Fortune Classic, 1958).” Fortune, fortune.com/2011/09/18/downtown-is-for-people-fortune-classic-1958/.
Guzzardi, Will. “Downtown Chicago Target: Loop Building On State Street Will Get Smaller ‘CityTarget’.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Feb. 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/15/downtown-chicago-target-l_n_823682.html.
“Posts about maps — as propositions on Making Maps: DIY Cartography.” Making Maps DIY Cartography, makingmaps.net/tag/maps-as-propositions/.
