Breathtaking skyscrapers, interesting museums, picturesque parks, leading designer shops and restaurants for all tastes - all this is Chicago. Famous in the first half of the 20th century for its colorful gangsters, today it is one of the largest financial, transport and cultural centers in the United States. Millions of tourists from all over the world come to this city every year to touch the American dream and see the sights of Chicago.
Skyscrapers, skyscrapers ...
When we talk about skyscrapers, views of Chicago often come to mind. It is to this city that the world owes the very first skyscraper, which was the building of the Insurance Company (1885). Unfortunately, this skyscraper no longer exists today.
In 1973, the tallest skyscraper in the world was erected - Sears Tower (443 meters), which in 2009 was renamed Willis Tower. In 1998, the Willis Tower ceased to be the world record holder, but it still remains the highest in the United States, and ranks fifth in the world. Tourists can visit the observation deck on the 103rd floor, from which they can admire not only the beautiful city itself, but also, if they are lucky with the weather, the territories of four American states.
Other interesting skyscrapers include the State of Illinois Building with transparent elevators and Aqua, which has an unusual curved façade.
Five tallest skyscrapers in Chicago:
Willis Tower (443 meters, 108 floors);
Trump International Hotel (415 meters, 92 floors);
Aon Center (346 meters, 83 floors);
John Hancock Center (344 meters, 100 floors);
Franklin Center (307 meters, 61 floors).
Magnificent Mile
Magnificent Mile is a street full of shops of leading brands, restaurants and hotels. Here you can pass the whole day, admiring the shop windows, making purchases, relaxing in a cafe, because there are 460 shops and 275 restaurants on this street! The magnificent mile is surrounded on all sides by state-of-the-art skyscrapers, which contrast in an interesting contrast with the symbol of Chicago - the building of the water tower - the only structure preserved after the terrible fire in 1871. Then it served as a landmark by which the survivors could find the wreckage of their homes, and today it is a symbol of courage and resilience, because in many ways it was the city rebuilt after the fire that became an example of unsurpassed architecture.
Parks chicago
But the metropolis is famous not only for its innovative architecture and expensive shops. In any photographs you can see how green this city is. The most famous parks in Chicago are Millennium Park, Grant Park and Lincoln Park.
Millennium Park attracts tourists not only with its beautiful landscapes. Other famous sights of Chicago are located on its territory - the open theater Pavilion Jay Pritzker, AT&T Plaza - an open area on which an unusual huge sculpture Cloud Gate is located - a cloud gate, although this monument looks more like a bean, for which the locals nicknamed it the Bean. Children and adults alike are attracted by the Crown Fountains.
At first glance, they are just cubic towers that depict the faces of city dwellers. But sometimes the images start to make faces, and then the fountains "spit", so you need to be prepared for the unexpected. However, the water is usually warm and perfectly refreshing on a hot summer day. Millennium Park was opened to visitors in 2004 and has a budget of nearly $ 500 million.
In addition to parks, there are about 30 beaches and several bird sanctuaries, so this city can also appeal to those tourists who prefer to admire nature during their holidays.
One of the most popular places for recreation and entertainment for city guests is the Navy Pier. Initially, it was built as a logistics center, and it was assumed that warehouses would be built on its territory. However, gradually the residents of the city began to arrange picnics on the Navy Pier, and enterprising businessmen opened cafes and entertainment venues. Today on the pier there are gardens, attractions, cafes, concerts and shows. One of the symbols of Navy Pier and the whole of Chicago is the large Ferris wheel, from which you can admire the city and the river.
Chicago museums
There are many museums here. The Museum of Science and Industry, dedicated to the achievements of scientific and technological progress, is very popular. Millions of tourists visit it annually, and the collection of the museum has more than 35,000 exhibits.
USA, Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
To show on the mapFive giants
Chicago skyscrapers - a visiting card of the city and an interesting attraction of Chicago - attract the attention of city visitors with their size and stunning architecture.
Most of the skyscrapers are concentrated in the city center, in the Loop area.
Chicago is definitely one of the centers of unique US architecture. It is here that five of the ten tallest buildings in the country are located, including the tallest skyscraper in the United States, the Willis Tower.
Willis Tower(Willis Tower) is a 110-story glass and steel building built in the form of 9 square pipes, has a magnificent observation deck, which offers breathtaking views of the city, Lake Michigan and neighboring states.
Trump Tower(Trump Tower) is a gleaming 92-story skyscraper hotel with a long silvery spire, the second highest not only in the city, but also in the United States. In addition to the luxury hotel, the building includes penthouses, condominiums, retail space, a garage, a luxury Sixteen restaurant, Rebar, a large spa and health club.
Tribune Tower(Tribune Tower) - a skyscraper that houses the newspaper office.
John Hancock Center- a skyscraper with a magnificent observation deck and an observatory.
Aqua(Aqua) impresses with its unusual facade a residential skyscraper whose curvilinear shape resembles a waterfall, and the "green roof" of the building is a park with green spaces, a swimming pool, an ornamental pond and jogging tracks.
Chicago Chamber of Commerce Building(Chicago Board of Trade Building), the top of which is decorated with a sculpture of the ancient Roman goddess of fertility Ceres.
The best way to see Chicago skyscrapers is on small boat trips along the Chicago River, combined with interesting stories about the history and architecture of unique buildings.
Chicago is considered the birthplace of skyscrapers - it was here that the world's first high-rise building appeared in 1885. It is believed that this is the second largest city in the United States by the number of skyscrapers - only Manhattan is larger. Chicago is located on the shores of Lake Michigan in Illinois. It is the third most populous city in the United States after New York and Los Angeles. More than 2.7 million people live in the urban area, and almost 10 million people live in the agglomeration.
1.
The first Europeans appeared in the vicinity of modern Chicago back in 1673, but a permanent settlement was formed only 100 years later - it was a fort to protect against attacks by Indian tribes. Due to its favorable geographical location between the east and west of America, Chicago quickly became a key transportation hub for the country and began to grow rapidly.
2. In 1871, the Great Fire of Chicago occurred, which lasted two days. The city had to be rebuilt.
The construction boom, coupled with the high cost of land, led to the appearance of the first skyscraper in 1885. It was the 10-story The Home Insurance Building, which lasted until 1931.
3. There are now 114 skyscrapers in Chicago - this is one of the highest-rise cities in the world.
4. Business Center Chicago Loop.
The tallest skyscrapers of the city are concentrated here, as well as most of the architectural sights.
5. Loop is translated from English as a loop. The whimsical name of the Chicago business district was given at the time by the circular line of the elevated metro.
6. Tribune Tower.
The headquarters of the most popular newspaper in Chicago and the entire Midwest is the Chicago Tribune. The 141 meter high skyscraper was built in 1923-1925 in the neo-Gothic style. Its walls are embedded with stones from famous buildings of the world, which were brought from trips by the Chicago Tribune correspondents (for example, the Great Wall of China, the Parthenon and the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter).
7. Wrigley Building.
William Wrigley Jr. - one of the leaders in the global chewing gum market. This is the first Chicago skyscraper to feature air conditioning in offices.
8. A network of tunnels runs through the city, through which you can drive under the center without traffic jams. In addition, there are special entrances for special equipment, for example, for removing garbage from skyscrapers.
The photo shows the bridge on Michigan Avenue, which became the first two-level bridge in world history. It was assumed that faster non-commercial vehicles would move along its upper part, and the lower one would become an overpass for heavy trucks.
7. Marina City.
The complex of high-rise buildings was built in 1964 and immediately received the nickname "Corncobs" for its characteristic shape. It consists of two 65-storey identical towers with a height of 179 meters. The lower 18 floors are reserved for parking, and on the side of the river there are marinas for yachts.
8. The uniqueness of the apartments in Marina City lies in the fact that you will not find right angles here. According to the architect's idea, on each floor, the common corridor was made in the form of a circle, which is framed in the form of wedges of 16 rooms (condominiums). The whole ensemble is completed by a semicircular balcony, separated from the rest of the living space by impact-resistant glass from floor to ceiling.
Tower cranes were used for the first time in America during the construction of the Marina City complex.
9. The Chicago River is the only river in the world that flows in the opposite direction.
In the 19th century, the city faced the problem of a shortage of drinking water. Water was then taken from Lake Michigan, and the waste was dumped into the Chicago River, which flowed into the same lake. Then the municipality made a truly revolutionary decision - to turn the Chicago River so that it does not flow into Lake Michigan, but flows out of it! This was done in 1900 - the problem with sewerage and drinking water for the city was resolved.
By the way, for more than 40 years, for St. Patrick's Day (March 17), the Chicago River has been painted bright green.
10. Millennium Park
The public park, located in the center of Chicago, is the northwest section of the huge Grant Park and is closely adjacent to the Chicago skyscrapers. Such a favorable location has made the park one of the main centers of attraction for locals and tourists.
11. Sculpture "Cloud Gate".
Residents soon nicknamed this sculpture "Bob" because of its bean-like shape.
This 100-tonne structure was built in 2004-2006 and consists of 168 stainless steel sheets, polished so that the outer surface has no visible seams. Almost the entire surrounding landscape is reflected in the "Cloud Gate". In order for the Bob to always shine, you need to use 150 liters of detergent at a time.
Boba's design was created by British artist Anish Kapoor. It is believed that the image of the sculpture was inspired by the sight of a drop of mercury.
12. Pritzker Pavilion.
A 4,000-seat concert venue (including 7,000), designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry. The pavilion consists of curving steel surfaces reminiscent of a graceful flower or the unfolding sails of a ship. The stage is designed in such a way that the sound is equally audible to any of the listeners, regardless of where he sits.
The road to the pavilion leads through a curved bridge that connects Millennium Park with the adjacent park. The bridge is named after British Petroleum (BP), which donated $ 5 million for its construction. For the winter, the bridge is closed, since the ice is not removed from the wooden flooring.
13. Willis Tower.
At the time of completion, this 110-story, 443-meter skyscraper was the tallest building in the world. He held this record for 25 years - until the construction of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010.
14. Willis Tower is now the second tallest building in the United States (after the Freedom Tower) and the tenth tallest building in the world.
15. The skyscraper stands on 9 "piles" of a square cross-section, interconnected. They rise up to the 50th floor. Then the building starts to shrink. Another 7 "piles" go up to the 66th floor, 5 - to the 90th, and only two "piles" form the remaining 20 floors. Each such "pile", in fact, is a whole building. Relatively speaking, the Willis Tower is 9 skyscrapers with different heights, which are connected into one house.
The Willis Tower is the first building for which such a design was used. The design allows, if desired or if necessary, to finish building more floors on top.
16. From the observation deck on the 103rd floor of the building, 4 states can be seen at once: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. It opened on June 22, 1974 and was named Skydeck. More than 1.3 million tourists visit Skydeck annually.
17. The original name of the skyscraper was Sears Tower. But since July 16, 2009, the high-rise building bears the name of one of the tenants, occupying several floors in it, moreover, without paying any remuneration. After 2024, the skyscraper may change its name, since the right to the name is valid for 15 years.
18. Museum of Natural History. Field (The Field Museum of Natural History).
The main exhibit of the museum is the Tyrannosaurus Sue. It is the largest surviving Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the world.
19. Chicago Temple Building.
The "religious" skyscraper was built in 1924. After 30 years, the so-called "Sky Chapel" was built on its roof. The top of its spire in the Gothic style is located at a height of 173.3 meters.
Now only the first five floors are occupied by religious organizations, and premises from the 5th to 23rd floors are leased to various commercial organizations. Since the skyscraper is not used entirely for religious purposes, it is not included in the list of the tallest temples.
20. Chicago Picasso (Chicago Picasso).
The 15-meter cubist sculpture is a popular meeting place in Chicago. Residents often call it the Horse or the Fox of the Picasso, depending on who has what associations.
According to one version, the creation of the original 162-ton statue of Pablo Picasso was inspired by the image of Lydia Corbett, to whom the artist dedicated many of his works. Picasso himself was even offered a fee of $ 100,000, but was refused, saying that he wanted to make his work a gift to the city.
22. Chicago Metro.
The Chicago metro consists of 8 lines with a total length of 170 km, with 92 km of lines passing above the ground (over flyovers). It is the third busiest metro in the United States after New York and Washington.
23. The Near North Side is an area adjacent to the Chicago Loop in the north.
24. Magnificent Mile.
It is one of the most famous shopping streets in the world. Located on the Michigan Avenue section, north of the Chicago River. The neighborhoods around the Magnificent Mile are considered some of the most expensive and prestigious in Chicago.
25. John Hancock Center.
The building is named after a statesman and hero of the struggle for US independence. Residents often call him "Big John".
The main feature of this 100-storey skyscraper is its hollow structure, which resembles a large quadrangular column. Thanks to the crossed steel struts, the structure of the building is stronger and more rigid. With a wind speed of about 100 km / h, the building deviates by only 15-20 cm.
26. Navy Pier is Chicago's largest tourist attraction.
27.
28. Merchandise Mart.
Shopping and office center, opened in 1930. The area of the premises is 370,000 square meters, within 10 km of corridors. Today it is the second largest building in America in terms of internal area after the Pentagon.
30. Carbide & Carbon Building.
This building is now called the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago. For a Russian, this skyscraper is notable for the fact that the hero of the film "Brother-2" Danila Bagrov climbed the fire escape to it, reciting the poem "I learned that I have a huge family ...". However, now this external fire escape has been dismantled.
31. Aqua
The first 18 floors of this 87-storey skyscraper house a hotel, the rest - apartments and penthouses.
32. The architectural bureau Studio Gang Architects designed the balconies of the building in such a way that each level is offset from the higher and lower by a certain distance. As a result, bizarre folds appeared on the facade, because of which it seems that water is flowing from the roof of the building along its walls.
33. Trump International Hotel & Tower.
Built in 2009, the building became the second tallest in the United States after the Willis Tower in Chicago. Now the 92-story skyscraper hotel is the second tallest building in Chicago and the third tallest in the United States. Height to the top of the spire - 423 meters (to the roof - 360).
Each of the three parts of the skyscraper is located at the level of an adjacent building to ensure visual continuity with the surrounding landscape.
34. Chicago Board of Trade Building.
It was the tallest building in the city from 1930 to 1965. The top of the skyscraper is decorated with a sculpture of the ancient Roman goddess of fertility Ceres. The choice of sculpture was not accidental. The largest grain exchange was located in the building of the Chicago Chamber of Commerce.
Tallest Art Deco building outside of New York.
35. Prudential Plaza 2 (Two Prudential Plaza).
36. City Opera House (Civic Opera House).
37. Smurfit-Stone Building.
38. Balconies.
39. Soldier Field.
Home football stadium of the NFL "Chicago Bears" (Chicago Bears). The oldest stadium in the NFL.
40. Wrigley Field.
Home baseball stadium of MLB Chicago Cubs.
41. America's main street, legendary Highway 66, begins in Chicago.
The photo shows the turbine junction The Circle Interchange (Spaghetti Bowl). Every day, it passes 300 thousand cars through itself.
42.
43. Museum of Science and Industry (The Museum of Science and Industry).
The museum's exhibits include the German submarine U-505, captured during World War II, the first diesel passenger train Pioneer Zephyr, and the spacecraft that took part in the Apollo 8 mission, which brought the first humans to orbit the moon.
44. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine building.
45. The metropolitan area of Chicago (with various suburbs) is called "Greater Chicago" or "Country of Chicago". Chicago itself is informally called "Second City" and "Windy City".
46. When we flew over Chicago by helicopter, our route crossed with the guard of US President Barack Obama. In the photo: American Bell V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, combining separate advantages of an airplane and a helicopter. It is the only mass-produced tiltrotor in service with the US Marine Corps and the US Navy.
For all questions regarding the use of photos, write to e-mail.
Not everyone knows about the history of skyscrapers and how they appeared. This is a rather interesting story and about this in our new article.
As time went on, small companies grew and turned into powerful corporations, and a new generation of industrial and financial magnates demanded more and more impressive premises for their headquarters. The need for new offices coincided with the development in the nineteenth century of the technique of constructing a new type of building - skyscrapers. Until the 1880s, the construction of buildings above 8-9 floors was considered irrational, since buildings made of bricks required such a solid foundation that even windows and doors in the lower floors were unsafe to open, however, as a result of many small and one big innovation, the construction of skyscrapers suddenly became possible. The main innovation was that the walls of houses were made lighter, because the building was not supported on them, but on a steel frame.
The word skyscraper (skyscraper) has existed in England since 1794 and has been used in a variety of ways: tall hat, tall ball in baseball, the topmost sail on a ship. This word was first used to describe a house in 1888 (although the term skyscraper building appeared four years earlier) and not in New York, as one might think, but in Chicago. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Chicago was the leading city in the world in the construction of large structures for a very simple reason - the devastating fire of 1871. The first skyscraper in Chicago was the Homes Insurance Company building, built in 1883-1885, which was quickly followed by the Leiter House (1889), the House of Confidence (1894) and the Carson, Peary and Scott House (1889). Soon skyscrapers changed the cityscape (cityscape, Americanism of 1850) throughout America so much that the word skyline, which previously meant "skyline", acquired a modern meaning - the outlines of skyscrapers against the sky.
The Home Insurance Building is the world's first skyscraper, built in 1885 in Chicago, USA, demolished in 1931.
House of Krason, Piri, Scott. 1889 year of construction.
Skyscrapers were born in Chicago, but New York became their real homeland. The first New York skyscraper, the twenty-two-story New York building of the world, opened in 1890, and soon other high-rise buildings rose over the city: Pulitzer (1892, 93 meters), Fletyron (Iron) (1903, 86 meters ), Times Tower (1904, 110 meters), Singer (1908, 180 meters), Metropolitan Life (1909, 210 meters) and, finally, the Woolworth House (240 meters), built in 1913.
It seemed that nothing more than Woolworth, with its 58 floors, employing 14,000 people, could no longer be built, and indeed, for seventeen years it was the tallest building in the world until Chrysler was built in 1930. It had 77 floors and was almost one and a half times taller than Woolworth (320 meters). According to the project, Chrysler was supposed to be 282 meters high, but the architect's rival decided to build a building 60 centimeters taller on 40th Street. Then the Chrysler architect Van Allen hastily and secretly designed a 37-meter steel spire, which became a wonderful decoration of the building. Chrysler did not retain its unconditional primacy for a very short time. It was not yet finished when work on the even more ambitious Empire State Building project began on 5th Avenue on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Rising 381 meters in height, the 102-story building held the world championship for forty-three years, until the 110-story, 443-meter, murderously ugly Sears Tower was erected in Chicago in 1974.
The use of a steel frame and light walls made it possible, in principle, to build high-rise buildings, but by no means solved all the problems. It took a lot of improvements to get these houses to function. Among them were revolving doors, which made it possible to avoid drafts that interfered with the normal regulation of the temperature of the building and were extremely fire hazardous, and most importantly, fast and safe passenger elevators were needed.
It is believed that the elevator was invented by Elisha Otis, although various lifting devices had been around for a long time when Otis became famous in the late 1850s. He never claimed to have invented the elevator. His contribution consisted in the invention of a simple, reliable device - a spring mechanism with clamps on gears - that made the use of a vertical elevator safe. With a passion for spectacular shows, Otis traveled around the world demonstrating the safety of the elevators he designed. The elevator in which he was was pulled up on a rope to a height of 15 meters, and his assistant, to the horror of the audience, cut the rope with an ax, but the elevator managed to fall only a few centimeters before the mechanism invented by Otis stopped it. Orders for its device came in hundreds. (Yet the first elevators were not very reliable. In 1911, the New York Tribune reported that in the preceding two years at least 2,600 people had been killed or injured in elevator-related accidents).
Skyscrapers have transformed the look of American cities beyond recognition, but added little to American speech. It is said that the expression twenty-three skiddoo, which means "get out quickly" in slang, originated from the Iron Skyscraper, located at the intersection of 23rd Street, 5th Avenue and Broadway. The unusual geometry of the house allegedly created strong drafts that lifted the skirts of women as they approached the building along 23rd Street, where men gathered to gawk at women's legs, but the police were on the alert and chased the onlookers with this exclamation. Unfortunately, there is no evidence for this theory. It is known that the word skiddoo, meaning "to run away," was the invention of the cartoonist T.A. Dorgan, who worked in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, but how it inextricably linked with the number 23, remains (like many other things) unknown.
This huge 250-meter giant from a distance does not stand out from the general Chicago "landscape", but if you get closer, it turns into a real waterfall, striking the imagination with the unreality of its design - it seems as if some fabulous ice colossus has grown up in the middle of the city
Skyscraper "Aqua", built near Lake Michigan, despite its unreal, futuristic appearance, nevertheless does not stand out from the general panorama of Chicago. This effect is achieved due to the fact that all unusual lines are hidden from a distance horizontally by an ordinary structure and become visible only when approaching the building - the greater the angle at which you look at the giant Aqua, the more “waves” become visible on its surface. When you stand directly under it, it seems as if the skyscraper is literally “storming”)
The 250 meters high-rise building is divided into 81 floors. The Aqua building houses the hotel and the usual living quarters. The facades of the skyscraper are decorated with real “lakes”, the role of water in which is played by windows, skillfully accentuated by the elongated, uneven ledges of the facade that hide the rest of the windows.
Curved, wavy balconies and window panes create a curtain or ripple structure for the façade. The windows have a blue-green hue, indistinguishable from the color of the water surface. The use of cantilever panels in the design of the building allows you to protect yourself from the summer sun, but not block the light in winter, and the light color of the facades reduces the heating level of the skyscraper.
According to the results of the recently held prestigious European architectural competition “The Emporis Awards - 2010”, the Aqua skyscraper was recognized as the best skyscraper of 2009. Emporis experts have awarded the Aqua architects an award for design excellence and architectural daring.
More precisely, the 250-meter "Aqua" impressed the experts with “original design solutions combined with sustainable design”. The jury noted that this building should set a high standard for future generations of large-scale hotel construction.
It should also be noted that in order to compile a rating of the most beautiful skyscrapers in the world, experts had to carefully study 305 skyscrapers from around the world, the construction of which was completed last year.
The head of Emporis Daniel Kieckhefer described the building in his own way: "The building looks pretty ordinary from a distance, but when approaching, unusual" liquid "outlines are found, from which passers-by take their breath away."
Organized by the German property data bank Emporis, this competition is held every year and the award is given to buildings at least 100 meters in height that have already been completed. For example, the winner of 2008 was Tokyo's Cocoon Tower, 203 meters high. But she, in any case, cannot be compared with the elegant "Aqua"
