City Walk #11: Riverside

Don't be confused-- this City Walk did not take place in the adorable western Chicago suburb of Riverside (although I wish one like that existed... it's basically the cutest little real life fairy tale village ever), but it was more literally a walk alongside the Chicago River.  I let Alex pick today's City Walk and I am pretty sure he selected this one because it is so architecture heavy.  This walk follows Chicago's River Walk, a promenade that follows the length of the River and weaves in and out between the plazas of different significant buildings.  We wound around and walked the River Walk on the the south side of the river on our way back as well.

We started the Walk at LaSalle & Kinzie and our first stop was the infamous "corn cob" buildings: Marina City (1) by Bertrand Goldberg.  They were once the tallest apartment buildings ever built.








After that we wandered east and through IBM Plaza in front of the former IBM Building (2), now known as 330 N. Wabash.  It was the last building designed by one of the godfathers of Modern architecture Mies van der Rohe.  Construction of the building didn't begin until 1971, two years after he died in 1969.

89th floor penthouse view during my visit in September

Donald Trump's Trump International Hotel and Tower (3) was next on our list.  It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was just completed in 2009.  Prior to 9/11 Trump Tower was supposed to become the tallest building in the world, but the plans were scaled back after the attacks on the World Trade Center.  I've had the privilege of touring a few of the condos in this building including the penthouse on the 89th floor-- if you're in the market for an unfinished 14,000 sq. ft. condo and have $30M to burn this might be the place for you!

Past the Trump Tower we made it to the intersection the River Walk and Michigan Avenue where our next two stops flanked either side of the street.  These are two of my favorite Chicago landmarks.  The first is the Wrigley Building (4) which was built in 1920 and designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White for the Wrigley Company (famous for the baseball field and the gum). 

Across the street is the Chicago Tribune Tower (5), designed by John Mead Howells and Raymond Hood in 1923.  One of my favorite things about the Tribune Tower (and totally one of the corniest tourist trap things about it too) is that on the facade of the building there are pieces of different famous buildings from around the world embedded in it-- from St. Peter's Basilica to the Great Wall of China to the World Trade Center. That's pretty cool, right?

 

The last architectural landmark on the Walk was the Centennial Fountain (6).  The Fountain was designed by Lohan Associates and was completed in 1989.  It was designed to celebrate the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago who was responsible for reversing the flow of the Chicago River.  Every hour the fountain shoots an arc of water across the River.  Another cool thing about the fountain (which  I did not know until my husband pointed it out today) is that when you access it around the back, you can actually go inside of it.  That's us "inside" the fountain!

The last stop on our Walk made me laugh.  After all of those architectural landmarks we ended our tour of the riverside at Fox & Obel (7), an upscale grocery store.  I'm a foodie so I am not complaining, but it's random, right?  Instead of just checking out the exterior I dragged Alex inside to take a look at all the fun stuff they sell there.  We ended up leaving with some desserts to take home and enjoy after our BBQ dinner.  Not a bad finale to this City Walk!