Chicago, take two...

I had another dentist appointment on Saturday, and took my camera with me again for the walk home. After the fun of my last venture, I was looking forward to this day, despite the prospect of dental work.

This trip wasn't nearly as successful as the last one, given that after my appointment I couldn't feel the entire right side of my face, and it was snowing, with nineteen degree temperatures and a wind chill of negative who-knows-what. Once you get below zero with the wind here, it all feels the same: it just hurts.



After a brief visit to a snow-covered Bean, I ducked back into the Cultural Center for a little warmth. I think this is my new favorite building.

Had to get another shot of the Escher-like main staircase. I read that they purposely inlaid the Tiffany glass on an angle so they'd reflect light. And they definitely seem to sparkle, even with a dreary overcast sky.

At the head of the main staircase is the Preston Bradley Hall. The great domed room is flanked by two smaller rooms with these gorgeous coffered ceilings.

The dome recently underwent an extensive renovation, wherein each of the 30,000+ pieces were removed, cleaned and repaired by hand. You can read about the project here. It's pretty spectacular; I wish I'd been there on a sunny day.

In 1897, this was the biggest project The Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company had ever undertaken. The dome is 38 feet in diameter, and makes one feel mighty small.

Heading back outside, I decided to take a different route home this time to catch some different parts of downtown on "film."

What are we supposed to say now? "On disk"? It doesn't have the same ring to it, sorry.

Just around the corner on Michigan Avenue is the Chicago Athletic Association, a formerly private club that closed a couple years ago and is now awaiting redevelopment as a hotel. It was originally designed to resemble the Doges Palace in Venice. I've been to a few weddings there, and it's sad to hear that much of the beautiful interior spaces are not going to be preserved (a very cool marble-clad pool among them). Seems a high price to pay for a room with a view.

This happy guy adorns the facade of the Walgreen's on Michigan & Madison. Much more character than the monstrosities they've been constructing all over the city and suburbs (who needs a drug store with a two-story mock turret?). But that's just my opinion.

And then we have The Pittsfield Building on East Washington with its fantastic brass ornament. I swear this was, at some point, the office of every single dentist in Chicago, but now it's been converted into dorms for Columbia College down the street. Hope the kids appreciate the architecture.

I popped back into Sugar Bliss for a treat that I wouldn't be able to eat for another six hours when my taste buds recovered from the novicain. My hygenist had been raving about the banana cupcakes, so I got a mini to try. It was pretty tasty, though I'm not a big banana-in-food person. My favorite's still the Black & White; the Pure Chocolate comes in a very close second.

And sorry, Macy's. To Chicagoans everywhere, this will always be Field's. You'll never win that one.

The Reliance Building at State and Randolph is an architectural wonder...or was in its time. One of the first steel frame skyscrapers in the city, it was the first to have more windows than stone, which made it very "modern." It was rehabbed in the late 90's and is now the Hotel Burnham.

I've always loved this guy. He adorns the entrance of an otherwise unassuming electrical substation in Block 37, across from Daley Plaza. He's very WPA. Love the lightning bolts.

Tucked in between a high-rise office building and the Chicago Temple, this Joan Miro sculpture is a great contrast to the arches engraved in its neighbor's walls.

The Picasso looked particularly chilly today...

Another place that makes you feel small: City Hall. The Corinthian pillars are HUGE. I don't think you can capture their massiveness in a picture -- you just have to stand beside them to feel just how enormous they really are.

And the next time you fly the friendly skies, think about how you're contributing to a piece of Chicago's skyline. This homage to all things Greek on the Chicago river at Clark Street is United's headquarters.

And yeah, Obama's picture is pretty much everywhere.

Down the street from Daley Plaza, this tiny architectural anomaly is sandwiched in between the Oriental Theater and the State Street Border's. It was a German restaurant when I first moved here -- there were little Glockenspiel people that came out and revolved around that opening every hour when the clock struck. Now it's an Argo Tea, and there's no sign of the little people. Hopefully they found work elsewhere.

And last but not least, we have the Chicago Theater. What I really wanted a shot of was the new construction behind it, the building with the narrow yellow-green (one might say puce) glass zig-zag up the side. Getting the marquee in the shot was a bonus.

'Round about here, the wind picked up, and I vaguely recalled a warning in my camera's instruction manual about not operating it in below-freezing temperatures. Probably too late for that. But my nose was really, really cold, and I knew I wasn't going to make it the mile and a half home without help (and heat) from the CTA.

More pictures would just have to wait for a warmer day.