Chicago Design Notes

I went to Chicago recently and walked almost 12 miles in three days. Maybe that's not impressive. That did include the airport. Chicago summer is heaven, coming from Mississippi.

I did the Chicago Architecture Center's River Cruise which was recommended to me, and now I recommend it to you. If floating around on the Chicago River on a nice day isn't enough for you, our guide Susan was super knowledgable, and I learned a ton. They also offer a huge array of walking tours and their Explore Chinatown is on my list for next time.

One of the coolest things to me were all the reflections of building on buildings. There are obvious patterns everywhere in Chicago, like the grids of windows and girders under the bridges, but when I got back I noticed the reflections contained some really warped, glitchy patterns that I think are really interesting. It's a pattern reflected into a pattern filtered by the disruption of the glass.

They're almost camouflage-like.

Speaking of patterns, a couple months ago I read The Pleasure of Patterns in Art, and it dives deeply into the many triangles of Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day. So when I get to the Art Institute and see they have it not just on display, but a whole exhibition, of course I need to see it in person. And it made me notice all the triangles in many of his other paintings. I mean, everything is shapes just like everything is atoms, but it's interesting to look at it and break it down in this way.

In the article they talk about how the lamp post cuts the painting in two. And I saw these kinds of extreme slices in other works. I walked a couple blocks to the Berghoff for dinner and to my surprise they use a Chicago version of this painting by Deborah Popely for their menu. The right half of the painting conveniently makes a nice vertical.

An interesting visual pairing:

So many other cool things at the AI (Elizabeth Catlett, Charles Gaines), but maybe that's for another post, or I might get around to making an Are.na board if you follow along there.

The 20%

I had a really great dinner at Avec (River North location). I could go on about THE SALAD which should tell you something. A wonderful Kazakh breakfast at Tary. And some nostalgia with a side of sauerkraut at The Berghoff. Missed my pilgrimage to Central Camera because of their slightly weird hours.

Recs I didn't make it to, but are on my list for next time: Tokyo Breakfast at Miru, duck at Sun Wah, vegetarian at Bloom, and Filipino inspired tasting menu at Kasama. Lastly, Choc Choc for K-beauty.

I think you can categorize a lot of cities by whether they are a tote bag, messenger bag or backpack city. Chicago is definitely a backpack city if you want to blend in.

The Chicago Blue Line is great. I bought a $15 three-day unlimited pass at the airport and used it to get from O'Hare to downtown and back again for my return flight. On a design note, the wayfinding signage is plentiful and easy to follow.

Hold the phone, I was looking online for an example, and you can buy these aluminum station signs!