Chicago in 2 Days

Scott and I visited Chicago for two days - before heading up to Madison, Wisconsin. We stayed right off Rush Street - near the Pizzaria Due. We had lunch there on Sunday morning and kicked off our Summer Vacation!

Monday Morning we took an architectural tour on the river. We are probably architectural "geeks", but we thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the buildings.

The opera house was the vision of utility magnate Samuel Insull (1859-1938), a populist billionaire known as "the Prince of Electricity." Insull, the president of the Chicago Civic Opera Association, wanted to erect a new opera house to replace Louis B. Sullivan's Auditorium Building on South Michigan Avenue as the home of the Chicago Civic Opera--one that would be democratic in scope, and would be housed in and supported by a commercial office building.

Rumor has it that Samuel Insull built the Chicago Civic Opera House in 1929 for his daughter, who hoped to sing for the Metropolitan Opera.

The Wrigley Building was built on the approximate site of Chicago's first home - the homestead of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable.

The Wrigley Building was the first large office building north of the Chicago River. An enclosed bridge at the 14th floor and a 3-story breezeway at ground level connect the building to the North Addition.

The clock tower is modeled after the Giralda Tower of Sevilla Cathedral.

None of the building's four corners is a right angle. The southwest corner is 84°, northwest 102°, northeast 42°, and southeast 132°.

The Marina City Towers lie near the river. Directly north is an unusual saddle-shaped auditorium, the original Marina City theater building. It was vacant for many years before being converted into the popular House of Blues in the 1990's.

These towers were featured in Steve McQueen's last movie, The Hunter: in one scene the hero chases a criminal 15 levels up the spiral parking ramp until the villain loses control of his Grand Prix and drives off the garage into the river.

The Merchandise Mart

The Boeing

Building

Before heading over to the Wonder Bar, we visited some local comedy and Jazz. Friday we went to iO Theatre (we highly recommend Deep Schwa) and the BackRoom. Saturday we went to Second City.

Second City

Underground

Wonder Bar

This is our second visit to the Underground Wonder Bar. We were there two nights in a row...the first to see some Jazz and the second night we came back to see Jen Porter ...again. We really enjoy her band and the whole Underground Wonder Bar atmosphere.

I would introduce you to Scott's friends - but after they purchased two shots of tequila for him, he forgot their names.