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::TRAVEL NEWS::
LE Newsletter -
August 26, 2010
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Windy City Blows Us Away
Source: www.thestar.com -
Adrian Brijbassi
(August 20, 2010) CHICAGO—For a Torontonian, visiting
Chicago
is kind
of like taking an economy passenger and giving him a taste of
life in first class. And that was before the Blackhawks won the
Stanley Cup.
Not that our city isn’t a great one. We’ve got a lot to be proud
of, but when you come to this other huge metropolis on a great
lake and spend some time near its lakeshore and riverwalk, you
can’t help but ask, “Why can’t we have this back home?”
That inquiry is for the mayor’s office to handle. Until our
government and developers show us serious action on the
waterfront, we’ll have to admire what the Windy City has done
along Lake Michigan and the Chicago River.
Navy Pier could serve as a blueprint for any big city’s plan for
a large
recreation park on the water. A replica of the first Ferris
wheel that was unveiled at the 1893 Chicago world expo towers 46
metres over the pier and all the activity happening on it. Kids
squeal on amusement rides, rollerbladers and pedestrians line
the boardwalk that’s filled with bars and kiosks serving beer,
concert- and theatre-goers congregate in the pavilion for shows,
and fireworks displays on Saturday nights teem with people.
About a 10-minute walk north of the pier is the Oak Street
Beach, where swimmers, volleyball players and sunbathers gather.
Ontario Place is quaint compared to this.
Although the pier dates to 1916, it was neglected for decades
and was so dilapidated 20 years ago it was considered an
eyesore, says Amanda Scotese, a long-time travel industry
professional who has just started offering walking tours through
her company, Chicago Detours. Since being redevelopment in the
early 1990s, Navy Pier has become Chicago’s No. 1 attraction, a
fun spot that complements the city’s array of art and history
offerings.
An architectural boat tour of the Chicago River will give you an
eyeful of some of the most majestic buildings on our continent.
From numerous streamlined skyscrapers designed by Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe to plenty of art-deco gems and the 442-metre Willis
Tower (formerly Sears), the Chicago cityscape is a stunner. The
$37 U.S. boat tour (
www.chicagoline.com) lasts 90 minutes and takes you
under several of Chicago’s 50 bridges (you could reach up and
touch a rusty beam if you really wanted). Guide Joan Lindsay, an
architectural historian, draws upon her impressive depth of
knowledge to keep you fascinated.
Away from the waters, Chicago’s streets around the river are
clean and safe. You can walk long stretches without seeing any
urban blight or running into areas that might seem threatening.
“Our stretches are bigger than in New York. You have to walk
many blocks here before seeing a change an area will change,”
says Scotese.
On the Magnificent Mile, lined with high-end shops and hotels on
Michigan Avenue, the city is at its most pristine.
To understand how Chicago got this way (and how Toronto didn’t),
you need to look at Chicago’s ambitious plans made more than a
century ago by Daniel Burnham, the architect and urban planner
whose grandiose talk is what some say really earned the “Windy
City” nickname. Burnham envisioned a “Paris on the Prairie” as
Chicago aimed to rebuild after the 1871 fire. By enacting
policies to keep industry out of the lakeshore, Chicago secured
Lake Michigan for public use and what’s developed around it is a
fantastic series of urban spaces, including Grant Park, where
Barack Obama gave his momentous victory speech after winning the
presidency on Nov. 4, 2008.
On the northwest end of Grant Park is Millennium Park, a
six-year-old public space that really acts its age. Thanks to
the Cloud Gate, designed by Anish Kapoor and nicknamed “The
Bean” by Chicagoans, the park has a perpetually fun feature that
causes giggles and laughter. The sculpture, composed of
stainless steel plates, reflects and distorts the city’s
skyline. It’s a touch of carnival near the heart of big business
and shows how a piece of well-placed, cleverly conceived art can
captivate a community.
Fittingly, the Cloud Gate is only steps from the Art Institute
of Chicago, home to the largest display of Impressionist work
outside of the Louvre. A Frank Gehry-designed orchestra pavilion
is also nearby.
Having followed Burnham’s “The Plan of Chicago” to detail, the
city has now focused on 2040. It’s created a blueprint for the
next three decades to turn this Second City into a North
American super-metropolis with high-speed trains and
infrastructure to help it attract more international business.
We Canadians slag Americans way too much for being bold and
brash people with grandiose ambitions. As Burnham and his
followers showed, those are not necessarily bad qualities.
Sometimes they can be the difference between being superb and
underwhelming.
Just the facts
GETTING THERE: Porter Airlines offers daily flights from
Toronto City Centre airport to Midway Airport, allowing you to
bypass the headaches of travelling through the major airports in
both cities.
www.flyporter.com
TOURS: Chicago Detours (chicagodetours.com) offers
walking tours for less than $20.
Chicago Cruise Line offers a variety of tours of the lake and
river, including the Architectural River Tour ($37). |
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::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
