Cloud Gate and Millennium Park

Millennium Park was inaugurated in July of 2004 and has a total of 24.5 acres.

Cloud Gate is a sculpture by Anish Kapoor, weighs 110 tons, is 33 feet tall by 66 feet long and is made with highly polished stainless steel plates. 

Chicago is proud of their parks, making it an important part of their urbanism in terms of public activities and green landscaping. 

Cloud Gate is one of Chicago's most photographed sites.

From the second floor of the Chicago Cultural Center, you can see the whole view of Millennium Park, with the pavilion standing out among the vegetation. 

During the winter, the ground if full of snow. But in the summer it is a free park with water in a reflecting pool between these two rectangles where children can be seen wetting their feet in the summer sun. 

Pictures of faces appear and change here, with water squirting out of their mouth into the reflecting pool in the summer heat. 

The Frank Gehry designed the Jay Pritzker Pavilion which is the Millennium Parks free open air concert stadium. 

Free night ice skating downtown Chicago in Millennium Park. 

McCormick Tribune Center

The famous orange colored tube is floating above the long flat McCormick center, designed by Rem Koolhaas, which is a sound barrier for the student activity center below it.  

The McCormick Tribune Center is a space for students that is part of a project to connect two parts of the campus originally split by a huge parking lot that is located below the raised subway structure. 

Multi-use. 

The front windows facing State Street were chosen in an orange tone. 

Through the orange windows facing State Street, their is a view of other buildings designed by Mies. 

The mix of architecture, interior and furniture design found under one roof. 

Interesting (but very expensive) wall designs. 

Interior patio that fills the center with natural lighting. Above you can see the "tube" of the subway.

Replicas of the original through-out the building. 

Number design for the offices. 

Stairs for normal walking and wheel chair access. 

Even though IIT is 20 minutes away on subway, you can see downtown Chicago off in the distance. 

State Street Village, IIT

The State Street Village is on the campus of IIT in Chicago, designed by Helmut Jahn.

The village is located in front of the Crown Hall and down the street from the McCormick Tribune Center.

Side facing state street, metal siding, and windows done by Douglas Hunter.

 Vegetation in the interior patios that mix into the building. 

Clean and interesting structure for the glass panels. 

Interior patio between each unit that still includes glass on the railway side, natural lighting and quality views. 

Space as a sound barrier, with the stair wells facing the railway creating a "silent box."

Structure of the L-train just a few feet from the village. 

The glass is part of a sound barrier of the L-train.

View from the L-train stop, the State Street Village with Crown Hall (Mies van der Rohe) in the back ground. 

Crown Hall

The School of Architecture of IIT in Chicago is based in the Crown Hall designed by architect Mies van der Rohe, who once was part of the Bauhaus in Germany. 

Mies designed many buildings in the IIT campus, along with Rem Koolhaas. His ideas are still taught in the School of Architecture there and inspired a founding society that tells of his architectural beliefs and his life story. 

Mies is known for his almost illusion of "floating" in buildings and stairs, making them feel light. 

The walls are entirely made of glass and steel frame, giving the maximum amount of natural light possible, for good or bad. 

The bottom floor is made up of a sitting area, bathroom, tool shops, and the architecture library. 

These panels and the two pillars are the only restrictions in the open floor plan, making it easily transformed for different activities. 

The first floor is made up of open space used as architecture students' workshop, mixed together so that the work can be easily viewed between all years. 

The circulation is the center point of the first and second floor plan, and the rest follows.