Category: chicago

Night Sailing

One of the finest experiences I’ve enjoyed in Chicago is night sailing when it’s at least 75 degrees and last night it was which is amazing for October. Flat water, 10 knot winds and wonderful crew. I already miss summer which is some 200 days away. Get it while you can, right?

Chicago night sky.
Chicago night sky.

63rd Street Beach House, City of Chicago

Chicago has the finest department of parks in the nation in my opinion and as I travel throughout the city, I find gems that are truly remarkable. Such is the case with the 63rd Street Beach House. I had no idea it existed until I walked into it. This South Side beach has great views of downtown Chicago and a nearby marina with 500 boat slips.

This, from the city of Chicago:

The 63rd Street Beach House is an elegant Classical Revival style pavilion. South Park Commission in-house architects produced plans for the impressive building. Completed in 1919, the elegant exposed-aggregate concrete building takes full benefit of Lake Michigan with its open balconies and loggias (open-air galleries on the ground level) allowing for lovely lake views and comfortable breezes.

Historically, the building provided bathrooms and showers, medical rooms and separate courtyards for men and women with hundreds of wooden changing booths.

Staircase, Chicago Cultural Center

staircase

Completed in 1897 as Chicago’s first central public library, the building was designed to impress and to prove that Chicago had grown into a sophisticated metropolis. The country’s top architects and craftsmen used the most sumptuous materials, such as rare imported marbles, polished brass, fine hardwoods, and mosaics of Favrile glass, mother-of-pearl and colored stone, to create an architectural showplace. Located on the south side of the building, the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome ― 38 feet in diameter with some 30,000 pieces of glass ― was restored to its original splendor in 2008. On the north side of the building is a 40-foot-diameter dome with some 50,000 pieces of glass in an intricate Renaissance pattern, designed by Healy & Millet.

In 1991, the building was established as the Chicago Cultural Center by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the nation’s first and most comprehensive free municipal cultural venue. Every year, the Chicago Cultural Center presents hundreds of free international, national, regional and local artists, musicians and performers, providing a showcase where the public can enjoy and learn about the arts.
Copy from City of Chicago

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