Quote:
Originally Posted by mcgrath618
Hey guys, I'll be visiting from Philly for the first time on Friday, and I'm probably gonna have a day or two with nothing planned. As an architecture nerd, what would you guys say are the coolest/best things to see?
(Food recommendations are also appreciated).
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* Architectural boat tour: Pretty much a must if you're into architecture and/or history. You really won't find anywhere else in the US (world?) that has dramatic skyscrapers along a river so close to the water as Chicago IMO. The river isn't that wide so it creates a canyon that is awesome.
3 main companies that do it, all are good IMO. I think the ones from Chicago Architecture Foundation may go to a better cause though.To be honest, I recommend the ones that also go into the lake, but the river-only ones suffice too.
* Take in the entirety of the riverwalk (pretty much the south side of the river). Pretty awesome. Also the views from the Michigan Avenue bridge area can be very dramatic (
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8889...7i13312!8i6656)
* Walk or bike along the lakefront. There are extremely dramatic skyline views along here. Check it out from both Oak Street Beach and also North Avenue Beach. Even further north (easy to get to with a bike) is Montrose Beach which is further. The lakefront has 17 miles of public land, parks, beaches, etc. Riding a bike along it is amazing - I really miss riding from numerous miles north of downtown and heading south into downtown. Nothing like it in the country really (and I say this as someone who lives in Manhattan now - this is one of a kind). There are so many good shots skyline wise. Also skyline, there is a 95th floor lounge at the John Hancock Tower which gets very busy but awesome, awesome views. The view looking north along the waterline is just amazing during the day.
* Gold Coast - some people consider parts of this part of downtown but it really depends on where you are. There's a lot of old turn of the 20th century and 19th century mansions here (including the original Playboy Mansion). One of my distant cousins is an Architecture writer for New York Times, LA Times, Wired, The Architect's Newspaper, etc and he was pretty much in awe of this area when I took him through it a few years ago.
Original Playboy Mansion for reference:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/14...!4d-87.6280086
Also I'd check out the 3 Arts Club, which is a 100+ year old former women's arts club at over 70,000 sq ft converted into a Restoration Hardware with a cafe in the middle that's pretty dramatic and spectacular. Ridiculous wait times, but definitely worth checking out for a handful of minutes at least:
http://3artsclubcafe.com/
* You can take a water taxi for just a few dollars (I think you can buy online otherwise they accept only card on board) to Chinatown which is a little south of downtown. They drop off right outside of a residential area that's next to the new part of Chinatown. There's 2 parts of Chinatown - old (
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8526...7i13312!8i6656) and new (
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8538...!7i8376!8i4188). The older part of Chinatown has some older housing stock that's mildly interesting.
Architecturally, the new part of Chinatown is set up similar to many alleyways you'll find in various cities in China, although those alleys are at least a few centuries old. I did not realize this until I visited a handful of cities in China for the first time last year and my girlfriend's parents visited from China and pointed it out. I have a better appreciation for the newer part of Chinatown in Chicago as a result.
For food, I definitely recommend Qing Xiang Yuan Dumpling (
http://qxydumplings.com) which are very legitimate NE Chinese style dumplings. Very good.
* Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, so definitely get outside of downtown. Some of the more popular neighborhoods socially are ones like Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Uptown, Rogers Park, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Pilsen, Logan Square, Hyde Park, etc etc.
If you like mural art, then you should visit Pilsen. The main train stop (18th Street Pink Line) is totally muralled and awesome (
https://www.flickr.com/photos/lisc-chicago/4494288530). The neighborhood is very Mexican, though the artists and hipsters have moved in for quite awhile. You'll find a lot of murals all over the place and the architecture can be interesting (
https://interactive.wttw.com/my-neig.../pilsen/murals).
The Museum of Mexican Art is also located in Pilsen which is free. There is a lot of good food in the neighborhood - can't go wrong with most of the Mexican places there and recently there's been some very good more trendy food options to go in there (i.e. HaiSous, S.K.Y, etc). Pilsen is named after the city in modern day Czech Republic and it was originally inhabited by Czech/Bohemian peoples back in the day and you can see some of how the city was before the "Raising of Chicago" -->
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago).
* Probably want to visit some Frank Lloyd Wright stuff if you are into his architecture. His home and studio was in the suburb of Oak Park which is accessible by train. They offer tours (
http://cal.flwright.org/tours/homeandstudio). He also has numerous homes in the city like the Robie House (Hyde Park -->
https://flwright.org/visit/robiehouse). The foundation runs more tours here
https://flwright.org/tours
* Food - it's Chicago so there's tons of good options. I'd get the obligatory Chicago Hot Dog out of the way - there's a million places to get it. Deep Dish is pretty much touristy but my favorites are Pequod's in Lincoln Park and Lou Malnati's. Downtown has a lot of options but you won't find a lot of legitimate ethnic options (you will find them and sometimes legitimate but the outside neighborhoods do it better).
In the end, it's your first visit. Downtown Chicago is spectacular - there are a lot of dramatic things to see along the river, Millennium Park (i.e. the Bean), along the lakeshore, etc. But there's so much good architecture spread throughout the city so I recommend trying to get outside of downtown after you check it out. Though you could easily spend a few days just downtown and never leave.
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