The skies of Chicago
For my mapping project, a Chicago Atlas, I decided to walk around the city and visit the tallest buildings. I visited the Willis Tower, Aon Center, John Hancock Center, Franklin Center, Two Prudential Plaza, 311 South Wacker Dr, 900 North Michigan, Water Tower Place, Aqua, and trump tower. These were the top 10 tallest buildings in Chicago and seeing each on in person on the ground gave a whole new perspective from just looking at the buildings from the skyline. I ended up walking a total of about 5 miles going to each of the buildings a majority of which were around the loop. I took pictures and tried to look at the building from all sides if possible to see all perspectives of it. I was able to visit all ten buildings and by the end I had felt content because I just went to Chicago’s ten tallest buildings and the next time I see a skyline I would remember how each of them looked.
The reason I chose to do the tallest buildings is because I have admired skyscrapers like the Willis Tower since I was a kid back when it was called the Sears Tower. Growing up whenever I thought about Chicago, I knew all about the urban setting. The cars, the people on their Bluetooths, the buildings full of office spaces, and other stuff that most cities have in common. But the aspect that I always saw as distinct from everything else in the city was the skyscrapers. Many buildings in Chicago are just normal structures but these buildings go above and beyond the sky limit quite literally. Buildings such as the Willis Tower, John Hancock Center, and the Water Tower Place are buildings that set the tone for Chicago as a city. They are the buildings that set the impression for people as they land at O’Hare and they look over the city. These are the buildings that stick out and demand attention. They stand their ground forcing everyone and everything to go around them whether it’s cars and people on the ground or birds and clouds in the sky. One of the biggest things Chicago is known for is it’s beautiful skyline and it wouldn’t be what it is today without… you guessed it, the skyscrapers. Many people see skyscrapers as just buildings that are tallers than others. I always wondered how they can go so high without falling over and how they were designed to withstand the worst of weather. It amazes me how they were built so elegantly and how strong their foundation must be. I admire the people who built these buildings because didn’t want to build any ordinary building like everyone else in the world was doing rather they wanted to make a long-lasting impression on the city they love and it is what has led us to the city that we have walk in today. I believe that Chicago wouldn’t be the city it is today because the dominant skyscrapers or as Aleksander Hemon said “the stern arrogance of the Sears Tower and the Hancock Center;” is what sets the bold tone for the city.
The purpose of my map is to show where the tallest buildings in our city are and rank them based on height. I especially wanted to show how most of them were in the loop where they could be seen from every other part of the city. I walked from the northernmost building which was 900 North Michigan and went down to southernmost building 311 South Wacker but saved The Willis Tower for last. I walked a total of about 5 miles with each building being a different distance away from each other.
The mood of my map is mainly informative because it mainly goes over the details of the buildings such as their height, rank based on height, and number of floors. It is not very artisitic or colorful as that was not my goal. I was trying to most accurately portray location and information about the tallest buildings in Chicago. I think that anyone that uses this map will be able to tell how to get the best view of the skyscrapers of Chicago and be able to tell while looking at the skyline what the name of each of the buildings is.
My map portrays a time frame of the couple of days that I did the walk in but the locations on the map as well as the facts are not limited to that time frame as unless any major events occur such as a new skyscraper being built or one being demolished, the information and locations on the map will remain accurate. My map did not have clear borders as it went into Lake Michigan on the East, a little into Old Town on the North, went until Greektown on the right, and went till just about South Loop on the bottom. The majority of the area contained in my map was the Loop area as most of the tallest buildings were concentrated there but the borders went out a little further so the area was not clearly defined by streets as borders but relative information was given to indicate the are covered in the map.
The orientation on my map is that of a normal map with North being up and East being to the right. Some orientation devices I include are neighborhood names such as Old Town and South Loop as well as a simple compass to indicate the orientation of the map and the direction needed to travel to get to the locations on it.
I represent the buildings by showing their locations and other facts about them. I positioned them in a way so that it would be distinguishible to people following the map to see where the relative locations of thee buildings are based on aspects such as other buildings, the neighborhoods, and the Chicago River.
The Chicago river is shown on my map as it weaves through the city. I included it because it can be used as a great navigation device. Many of the bridges that run across it are in the Loop area where most of my buildings are and often to get to the buildings you need to cross the bridge which is a great way to distinguish where the buildings are, based on which side of the river it’s on. The southern side of the river known as The Loop seemed to be a lot more concentrated with buildings and as I crossed the bridge to go there I realized the area was a lot more urban with more traffic, people, and stores all over the place. People were pouring out from all different walkways, alleys, and stores. As Nin-Hai Tsend said “Users of downtown know very well that downtown needs not fewer streets, but more, especially for pedestrians. They are constantly making new, extra paths for themselves, through mid-block lobbies of buildings, block-through stores and banks, even parking lots and alleys.” and that truly was the case in the loop. I realized that everything was so compact that even waiting for streetlights to give the walk sign would crowd up the street. I watched people going further into the sidewalks surrounded by buildings as they travelled from one side of the river to the other.
The main influence of my walk was obviously the locations of the buildings but my route was heavily affected by other aspects such as walkability of the streets, intriguing aspects of the street, and traffic on the street. Many of the streets by the riverwalk were nice and calm filled with beautiful greenery and well-built sidewalks but once on the other side of the river in the loop area it was much harder to find streets that weren’t crowded and had some type of greenery. I found myself walking along the riverwalk due to this issue. Colin Ellard said, “Not only are people more likely to walk around in cityscapes with open and lively façades, but the kinds of things that they do in such places actually change. They pause, look around and absorb their surroundings while in a pleasant state of positive affect and with a lively, attentive nervous system”. I found that walking down the riverwalk I was a lot more inclined to observe my surroundings and admire the views rather than when I was walking down a crowded and boring street I just wanted to get out of there faster.
I also noticed that the buildings looked very new and found that all of them were built in the past half century and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the area around them looked very modern as well with appealing structures and new stores. Some examples are the John Hancock Tower with the beautiful fountain with stairs leading down to it and the eye-catching centerpieces.
I found that the area surrounding most of these buildings was a rich area full of wealthy people spending their time there based on the cars and clothes people wore. There were some really nice cars such as a nice Maserati I couldn't get a picture of and lots of people walking into the building wearing formal clothes such as suits making me feel kind of out of place but I was just taking pictures of the building. I think this shows how based on where you live how you live is determined so people that live close to these big company buildings can get jobs there and become wealthy and if you live far from there you won’t be able to work there but rather in a lower income place so location definitely makes a difference on people’s quality of life.
Overall, going building to building was a great experience for me and probably fulfilled one of my childhood journeys I wanted to take. It was a great experience seeing the buildings that put the skyline together and how they look separately compared to how they all come together to make Chicago’s skyline one of the most appealing views in the world. (1,735 words)
References:
Hemon, Aleksander “Reasons Why I Do Not Wish to Leave Chicago: An Incomplete, Random List” Chicago Mag www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/April-2013/20-Reasons-Aleksandar-Hemon-Will-Never-Leave-Chicago/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.
Tseng, Nin-Hai “Downtown is for People (Fortune Classic, 1958)” Fortune, 2011, http://fortune.com/2011/09/18/downtown-is-for-people-fortune-classic-1958/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.
Ellard, Colin “Streets with no game” Aeon, 2015, https://aeon.co/essays/why-boring-streets-make-pedestrians-stressed-and-unhappy. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.
