Beautiful Architecture/Field Museum visit added 12 09

[Hahma]

I've lived in Hawaii, been to the southwest, carribean, northeast, southeast and a couple spots in Canada. For all that natural beauty to behold, nothing seems to inspire me as architecture. For as destructive as we humans can be, we can also create beauty and awe inspiring engineering.

Here's some pictures that I took today. I've been to downtown Chicago countless times, but I am humbled and awestruck by it's buildings every time I visit. I could spend the day just taking pictures and still not capture it all, but here are a few.

If anyone else has some interesting architectural pictures, please share them as I would enjoy seeing some other cool stuff.

Here's the Merchantile Mart. It's the second biggest (not tallest) building in the U.S. It has it's own zip code. The first largest in the U.S. is the Pentagon.



I can't recall what this one was called, but the gold near the top shines pretty awesome in the sunlight.



This is River City and like Marina City in that it is a self sufficient building with shops, stores and movie theaters within the building, as well as it's own marina for the boat owning condo owners.



This is Lake Point Tower and is a residential building right next to Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. It's the only residential building in Chicago on the east side of Lake Shore Drive. There wasn't supposed to be any residential buildings built on land east of Lake Shore Drive, but this was technically built on a land fill. Since then, the city changed the codes to include land fill as well as a no no east of Lake Shore Drive. Anyway, this place has some incredible views of the city as well as Lake Michigan.



Here's the Sears Tower. Tallest building in the U.S.





Some rich people condos along the river, near the locks to get into Lake Michigan.



The Boeing Headquarters building, it has the world's record for highest clocktower.



Prudential building from Prudential plaza where we rested by some fountains and flower gardens.



This is a cool building, it is built with the curve of the river on one side and runs with the streets on the other side. It has awesome reflections in the glass.





This building is one of my favorites, it's right near Michigan Ave. and across the river from the Wrigley Building. I love the detail at the top.





Here are the Marina Towers. They pioneered the total self-sufficient building style, with resturaunts, theaters, shops etc.



Here's a shot from near the locks leading to Lake Michigan. Oh and by the way, the Chicago river used to flow into the Lake, but the Army Corps of Engineers made the river flow in the opposite direction. Thus the locks that take boats to the lake.



The new Trump building under construction. It will be around the 90 story mark when completed.



I learned that there will be a new building going up along the river and I believe it will be designed by the first woman architect to design a building/skyscraper in Chicago. It will be interesting because it is said to be designed to look like it's moving. That will be a must see for me when it's done.