The Great American (Chicago)
“I live by tangible experience and not by logical explanation.”
Georges Bataille, "Inner Experience"
My last entry on this blog focused around New York City and the familiarity of places and buildings. Staying on the North American continent, I’d like to discuss another phenomenon of place-association. I have often heard some North American cities explained as “great cities” because they are so very European. While I experience some cultural “comfort” or "identity" in places like San Fransisco or Montréal, and cities evolved from historical centers, like Québec or Boston, a series of references to one city, Chicago, is of particular interest.
I would not say that Chicago is in any way European. While visiting, I did not get that feel from any part of it, from the buildings, urban forms, waterfronts or even the food. To me, Chicago is the greatest example of the greatest parts of American culture. If I stand anywhere, look down, up, across, in every direction, this is to me the epitome of “city.” That is to say, the scale of the streets and buildings, the openness of the spaces and the composition of central Chicago is something so beautiful and “great” (in both quantity and quality) that, to me, this city is vastly more powerful than its parts.
Chicago has always been a city that cares about architecture and form. The works of Louis Sullivan and the Chicago school of architecture began a vertical modernity that became the city’s signature. Newer towers challenged the possibilities of height, like the Willis and John Hancock towers, as well as aesthetic form, like the Marina and Aqua towers. This is in perfect collaboration with the horizontal space of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, the Millennium Park, and grand streets like the famous Michigan avenue.
Wandering Chicago is a fantastic experience of consistently shifting vantages. Unlike New York, where I was often drawn to something on the next block, or around a corner, everything cool in Chicago was, for me, always far away. I see a tower from the other side of a neighbourhood, or an interesting space from almost across the horizon (exaggeration, I know). Chicago can make you feel confined and liberated all at once, under the L-train, in a fjord between concrete towers, in a park or by the river. As an architect, I’m always looking up – it’s a habit we develop – and some of the penthouses on old stone towers are so unbelievably beautiful in their neo-gothic detailing, that… well, not a tear to the eye, but perhaps a smile! The one place, though, where I think you will see nearly everyone look up, at least, is under the giant Marilyn Monroe statue! Yes, Chicago with all its intellectual beauty, its concrete and glass towers, its spectacular culture and cheese-filled food, still likes a good joke.
But it’s not European! Back to the thesis, though, the equation of greatness in a city with the European adjective, I think, should be used carefully. The association of a feel in a place with a memory or understanding, should be qualified with more than just the idea that European cities are great, which they are, but so are so many other places around the world. Chicago is like Chicago, and possibly the greatest that has been produced by a great culture in a great nation.
The ever changing, growing skyline of Chicago. Never desperately attached to the paste, Chicago has a history of appreciating what's happened before, while looking encouragingly at the future.
Yes, Chicago as seen through the Bean! Perspective is an important part of the composition of the city. It places where you are, and where you might go.
