The good thing about Chicago is that it has a lot of interesting, even historic buildings, public spaces, and art installations that it’s nice to walk along its streets and discover the bits and pieces that make this windy city a tourist favorite.  It’s such beautiful city to explore that I did not mind the long walks.

Tribune Tower
When I saw this building, I thought it looked so familiar.  Turned out that in the movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon, there was a scene of snipers shooting from the 26^th floor of Tribune Tower.

This tower, by the way, is located at 435 North Michigan Avenue and is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company.  Designed by New York architects John Mead Howells and Ramond Hood, it is one’s of Chicago’s most popular buildings known for its neo-Gothic design and buttresses.

A trivia.  In the lowest levels of the building are building fragments from famous and historically important sites and buildings around the world.  These include the Taj Mahal, the Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, the Great Pyramid, Notre Dame de Paris, the Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, Palace of Westminster, etc.   Two (2) sites from the Philippines, namely Corregidor and Fort Santiago also had their fragments incorporated in this building.

Wrigley Building
This skyscraper, located in 400-410 North Michigan Avenue, houses the corporate headquarters of the Wrigley company.  It was designed by the architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White using the shape of the Giralda tower of Seville’s Cathedral combined with French Renaissance details.  It is Chicago’s first air-conditioned building.

This building was also featured in scenes at Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Here’s a photo of both towers taken at a better day when the weather was perfect for a stroll.

Chicago River
We passed by Chicago River many times when I was there.  This photo was taken onboard our host’s car.

The river was not something spectacular, but it is noteworthy for its natural and man-made history.   According to Wikipedia, in 1887, the Illinois General Assembly, in response to concerns arising out of an extreme weather event in 1885 that threatened the city’s water supply,decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago River through civil engineering

Here’s a screenshot of more photos of the river and the buildings by its bank.

Water Tower
Built in 1969, this the second oldest water tower in the US, which was originally constructed to house a water pump intended to draw water from Lake Michigan.  It gained prominence after The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (some believed it was the only building to survive the fire, but there were a few other buildings who did).

Located at 806 North Michigan Avenue along the Magnificent Mile shopping district, the tower now serves as Chicago’s Office of Tourism art gallery.

Art Institute of Chicago
This is an art museum located in Chicago’s Grant Park that features a collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in its permanent collection.  At one million square feet, it is the second largest art museum in the US.

I was not able to go inside the museum and only took photos of its façade.

Chinatown
This neighborhood is the second oldest settlement of Chinese in the US.

From TripAdvisor reviews of Chicago South Loop, which was where I stayed, I found out that this is near the hotel, but I did not get to visit this place until my friend visited me.  We were supposed to have lunch but were so hungry already so we opted to eat here (details in a future post) instead of going downtown.

More photos of the sights seen at Chinatown:

More Sights and Sites
This is a collage of the sights and sites of Chicago that I can identify.

From left: the building where the Philippine Consulate General office is located, Route 66, Willis Tower (did you notice the airplane?), Tribune Tower and Wrigley Building, Hancock Building, the US Bank, and the Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Here’s another set.

I saw the jeans-clad art installation at one of the entrances of Willis Tower, while I passed by the Plaza of Americas on my way to Hancock Building.  I can’t remember the name of the bridge, but I passed by it on my way to Campus Museum.

Here’s a solo shot of it.  Aren’t the clouds so dramatic?

And here’s a collage of some sights and sites that I cannot identify.  I’m trigger-happy when armed with a camera, and these are its results.

Gardens and Fountains
Again, just some of the things that made my stroll in the Windy City interesting.

I was able to identify some of the above scenes via Google: Eagle Fountains by Frederick C. Hibbard, Turtle Boy by Leornard Crunella, and Fountains of the Great Lakes, or Spirit of the Great Lakes by Lorado Taft.

Sculptures and Whatnot

While researching these sculptures, I came across THIS BLOG, which was the most informative site I could find about Chicago’s public art.  From there, I was able to identify the above as (left to right): Theodore Thomas Memorial/The Spirit of Music Statue by Albin Polasek, Christopher Columbus by Carlo Brioschi, Bowman and Spearman by Ivan Mestrovic, General John Logan Memorial by Auguste Saint-Gauden, Magdalene by Dessa Kirk and Agora by Magdalena Abakanowicz.

I’ll end this post with one of my favorite photos from this set.  I don’t know what these flowers are, or the buildings, but I remember taking this somewhere at Museum Campus.

Note that I edited this last photo using PicsArt.