Though it was rather late when we got there, the Palmer House was still abuzz with people and activities. Kirk upgraded our reservation to the Executive Level (the top two stories) of the hotel, thinking that would be a nice treat for our stay. We were sorely disappointed, however, when we were bundled into a tiny room, not much bigger than what one gets at a roadside motel, and smelling of insecticide. I complained to the registration clerk about the crappy room when he phoned to see if we got to our room alright and before I thought of threatening to tweet my irate review of the hotel on Yelp, he offered to move us to a different room when he came in to work the following day.
I learned from our friend K the day before we left for the trip that some of the public transportation I planned to take might be "somewhat dicey" and suggested I take some alternative routes. After further research, I finally realized that there are several different public transportation systems in Chicago - CTA bus, CTA rail (also called "L"), Metra communter rail (run by eight independent railroad companies), and Pace suburban bus services. I was quite overwhelmed by all these different names; I initially thought that they were just different terms referring to the same thing but I soon learned otherwise -- all were not created equal.
The L system, radiating from the downtown Chicago Loop, would be, I thought, the most tourist-friendly and convenient for getting about town. Its west-bound green line takes one directly to Oak Park, the Mecca of early Frank Lloyd Wright houses, and the south-bound line takes one through the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Campus, conceived, it almost seems, single-handedly by Mies van der Rohe, and then to Hyde Park, where the University of Chicago and Wright's Robie House are located. As I had planned to visit both Oak Park and Robie House on the same day, the L train seemed to me the most logical mode of transportation to take, especially since the Metra line to Hyde Park only runs once an hour. When I was leaving the Unity Temple, the docent there told me that the quickest way for me to get to Robie House in time to make the last tour at 3 p.m. was to take the green line back, get off at Garfield station, and hop on a cab there or take a bus. Even though Robie House is just a few blocks from the station after crossing the Washington Park, she advised me not to walk across the park by myself. Not heeding my friend's advice to change to the Metra line downtown, I resolutely got on the green line at Oak Park and rode for about 30 minutes all the way down to the south side of Chicago.
When I got off at Garfield station, I asked the lone station agent where the bus stop was to the University and was told that it was just on the opposite side of the station across the Garfield Blvd. I proceeded to march across the wide boulevard with my head held high, but had to scurry right back when I got to the middle of the road after getting a
glimpse of the bus stop area ahead. I went back to the agent and asked him where I could get a cab. He said, "cabs don't stop here; you'll have to call one." I asked him for a phone number to call a cab. I called and was told to stand in front of the station and flag one down when I saw one driving by. I stood there for about 20 minutes and no cab came by. What with my fedora hat and fur-trimmed down coat, I stuck out like a sore thumb in front of the station. I went inside the station and called the unified cab service number again and when I told the representative that I'd been waiting in front of the station for 20 minutes without seeing a cab, she remonstrated me by saying that "get this clear, you did not reserve a cab earlier; to reserve a cab you'll need a street number for a residence or a business." So I asked the station agent for the street number of the station and called again. This time I was told that train stations were not "business" and that I should walk around and find one legitimate business address and call back. There was a gas station a block away and I walked over and asked the owner of the gas station for their street address. I then phoned again and this time made a proper reservation for a cab. I stood outside the lively gas station in the chilly wind, where loud screams and curses from two females yelling at each other in two different cars could be heard, for another 30 minutes--and still no cab came by. In the meantime I called that number two more times and was repeatedly told that they were still working on it. Finally, after about 10 minutes past 3 and too late for the last tour of Robie House, I conceded defeat, gave up the whole enterprise and walked back to the station and took the train back downtown! I was more angry than scared at the whole episode and had half a mind to write to Rahm Emanuel and ask him whether he had ever taken the green line personally in his beloved city.
One consolation that day was that I got our room changed from a 150 s.f. "closet" space to a palatial 550 s.f. room. We also found out that there were several privileges which come with the Execute Levels--free breakfast and afternoon h'orderves, and Executive Express elevators which skip the floors on which the hoi polloi sleep.
But, you would be mistaken to think that I didn't like the Windy City. In fact, in the end, I did get to see and admire some very impressive architecture there, which, after all, was my main objective in visiting. Here are some of the highlights -
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| Unity Temple |
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| Skylights, Unity Temple |
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| Crown Hall, IIT |
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| Carr Memorial Chapel |
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| McCormick Tribune Campus Center |
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| The Tube |
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| State Street Village, IIT |
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| Train seen behind the glass screen |
In recent years the IIT campus has gradually been infused with some breath of architectural freshness and diversity with the addition of several "outlandish" new buildings, most notably the MTCC and the Tube encircling the elevated L Rail, designed by Rem Koolhaas, and the State Street Village, a string of student residential blocks, designed by Helmut Jahn, alongside the railroad track, with open courtyards separated from the noise and vibration of the train track by enormous transparent glass screens. Both of these buildings seem to be the result of a concerted effort of the University and the architects to reach out to the neighborhood surrounding it by creating the most amorphous screen possible separating the two. While I can appreciate their admirable motivation, I'm not so sure that they've managed to achieve their lofty goal. It is true that the elevated L line runs through the middle of the campus and is briefly wrapped within the sleek, orange, steel and concrete tube, and that the residential halls of the students seem, on the L, to be only at an arm's length away, so that one can almost touch their mostly transparent walls. However, the actual 35th Street Station is located several blocks from the tube and is surrounded by a dingy, deserted parking lot. From what I could see, people leaving the station all seemed to be heading away from the campus.
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| the Poetry Foundation |
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| Entry Courtyard, Poetry Foundation |
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| the Modern Wing, Art Institute |
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| Lobby, the Modern Wing |
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| Deserted Millennium Park by day |
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| Coming alive at night (& Marija) |
We spent the last morning of our stay in Chicago taking the self-guided Loop Walk. It was like taking an architectural history class of American architecture in the early 20th Century. My neck was very sore after gazing up the facades of so many historical skyscrapers on the walk.
Well, I'm about done with my adventures in Chicago, but there were still some unexpected ones awaiting us during our last day there. We had parked our car in an off-site garage a block from the hotel and had paid in advance a hefty sum of $160+ for the parking. When we finally settled into the car ready for the long drive back, we found, to our great dismay, that the battery was dead! It turned out that we had left a map light inside the car on the whole time. Luckily we were told that the garage attendant on our floor would be able to help us. And indeed we found this admirable chap in his office where a gigantic portable battery charger stands ready at hand; this kind of emergency must have happened frequently. After he jumped start our car, we cruised down to the gate to exit the garage, but when we inserted our parking ticket into the machine, we were greeted with the message,"no data found!" This meant a trip back to the hotel and to have the ticket re-validated. What a bummer! But instead, I went into the garage office and showed them our hotel invoice indicating that the parking had already been paid. No problem there, and we left the garage with a sigh of relief. Our next task was to get out of Chicago without getting into any accident and then find a gas station to fill up the tank before continuing on our long haul home. Four hours later we were safely back in Bloomington and after dropping Marija off, Kirk sprang another surprise to me by telling me that he just found that he had left the gas cover open with the gas cap in its holder since getting gas just this side of the Indiana state line; he had forgotten to put the cap back on and close the cover after filling up the car! Ah, All's well that ends well!
