Chicago: One town that won't let you down

I traveled to Chicago for a close friend’s wedding. The reason I begin with this, is because I knew that I would not have time to really experience the city, the way I normally like to. But I wanted to post this up here anyway, because I think first impressions can be very accurate and although I was in the city for a day, I like to think that I saw enough to make we want to go back.

During my undergraduate years in architecture, my priorities were very different. Of course I loved travelling (who doesn’t?), but under the whole category of people who love travelling, we as architecture students are a sub-category. This sub category being ‘visiting buildings and public spaces designed by renowned architects ’. Everyone has their priorities. As architecture students, this was ours. Don’t get me wrong, that is not a wrong reason to travel . But now as an urban designer, when I look back and I think about it, really, what do I know about London? What do I know about Liverpool? Sure I could talk  about the city in fragments. But in hindsight (which is always 20-20), I feel that I cannot talk about those cities comprehensively, as an urban designer. So I decided that the one day I had in Chicago, would be spent really understanding the city.

Before my trip to Chicago, I didn’t really have much knowledge of the city. I knew that Barack Obama is from there. I knew that the Sears tower and the John Hancock Center, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are built there.  I knew about Daniel Burnham’s World Columbian Exposition of 1893 and later, his Plan for Chicago. You do notice Burnham’s Plan of Chicago from the air, or at least some part of it and really only if you're looking for it. You can distinguish the radial avenues emanating from the city center and parks scattered concentrically. Your eye also goes to Lake Shore Drive, which is a highway along the waterfront. But the first observation you make from the air, flying over lake Michigan (calling it a lake always makes me smile, because it is for all purposes a sea), is where Downtown Chicago is. That is where your eye goes first. The unmistakable trapezoidal shape of the Hancock, the Sears Tower, and just the sudden density, typical of a business district in the United States. Then the built form of Downtown Chicago dissipates into the American suburbs of rubber stamped, single family housing. Seeing the city in the distance is what gave me comfort. Seeing density. It is definitely in some part because of my upbringing in Mumbai (80,000 people/sq mile). But also as a newcomer to a place, I know a city will give me access to a diversity of people, access to public transport, public services, atms, stores, restaurants and some way to locate myself, should I get lost. But I digress. This article is not about me advocating for cities. In short, seeing downtown Chicago, even if only in the distance, made me happy.

The wedding reception took place in the suburbs of Chicago, in a neighborhood called ‘SleepyHollow’. Yes, during Halloween they do have someone dressed as a headless man riding through on a horse. I spent 3 days with my friend and her family in Sleepy Hollow, after which we drove to the newlywed's  apartment close to Downtown. Chicago as you probably know has a system of canals running through the city and together they are called the Chicago river. The main stem, which runs east west from Lake Michigan, confluences with  the north river branch and together they flow down south. These rivers, which were once used by cargo ships now run busy with cruise boats, offering tours of the city from the river. Taking one of those cruises was one of the best decisions we made, because Chicago is a city that grew important during the Industrial revolution not just because of its commanding position in the mid-west on Lake Michigan, but because of this system of rivers which connected it inland. So a cruise on the river helps you understand Chicago’s past, present and future.

The approach to the river is a climb down the famous Wacker Drive with multi storey transit (something I have never seen before). It is then a stroll along Chicago’s riverwalk to the cruise boat. What amazes me about American cities, is how much they changed to incorporate the motor vehicle and how they are now trying to undo that damage. This is not typical to Chicago, but is definitely seen very clearly here. In New York, Robert Moses built the Hudson River Parkway, a highway along the Hudson river, to encourage Americans to drive along the river and enjoy the view. This disconnected the riverfront from the city. In Chicago, Lake Shore Drive and Wacker Drive, in my opinion have done the same thing. And now, projects like the Chicago riverwalk attempt to repair this damage and create pedestrian access to the waterfront.

With the cruise it is also clearly seen how the role of the river has changed overtime. On the banks of the main stem, what you now see is prime real estate and an archipelago of architecture. There are the buildings from the 20’s and 30’s; The Chicago Tribune building (a gothic revival building which is so, so beautiful), the Wrigley building. Then there are the buildings from the 1960’s-1970’s; the IBM building by Mies Van der Rohe (which looks a lot like the Seagram’s building), the Marina by Bertrand Goldberg (who said that there are no right angles in nature), the Lake Point tower. There are the more recent buildings like The Aqua Building, The Trump Hotel and a few others by SOM.

It is therefore hard to imagine that this river, which every building wants to overlook, was once the back of the city. All rivers have a history but this one is particularly interesting. When industry boomed in Chicago (early 1800’s), the industries were built along the river. The industrial boom, caused immigrants to move here, creating an increase in housing. Industrial pollutants and sewage was dumped into the river. But the river flowed into Lake Michigan which was the city’s drinking water supply. Naturally, people started to get sick and die (Duh!). So, engineers from the Water and Sanitation Dept decided to reverse the flow of the river, by dredging. So now… the water was clean. But, surprise, surprise! The polluted water now flowed down to St. Louis and boy were they pissed! Also, the reversed flow caused Lake Michigan to start emptying. So the other states which depended on Lake Michigan for water, also started to get pissed. To cut a long story short, the city did not get away with this. They had to install locks to control the flow of water from Lake Michigan and were Supreme Court ordered to get their act together and build sewage treatment plants. Needless to say, they did both. A cruise along the south branch (which is like a 3 dimensional timeline), shows you first some newly built glitzy, commercial buildings, then the old brick and mortar industrial buildings, but also many land parcels that have opened up for real estate speculation.

Another aspect of Chicago that struck me, was when we took the elevated red line train. This goes through neighborhoods, with the multi story townhouse typology. But while they seem similar to the brownstones in New York and Boston, where they differ is the back facades that actually face the railway line. There is the prominent wooden fire escape staircase, sprawled across the back, and the little balconies created, where back doors of the apartments open out towards the staircase landing, are a nice lesson in appropriation Some landings are converted to upper storey gardens, some to porches with a coffee table and chairs and some just used for storage. A walk through the city, which then followed, took us to Millennium Park, which is spectacular. A park of that scale, which offers you an upfront view of the city and a diversity of landscapes, including the latest addition of the Maggie Daley park is definitely worth seeing as well as the outdoor amphitheatre.

Chicago really is a city worth visiting and definitely for more than a week. I think in size and density, it lies somewhere between Boston and New York. It would serve your culture needs(Jazz!), food needs ( the Chinatown is great!), architecture needs (Frank Lloyd Wright paradise), rents won’t burn a hole in your pocket (I love you Boston, but come on!), and the sidewalks are busy (and diverse) enough to keep you interested. “Diane, would you move here?”, is a question I always ask myself at the beginning and end of a trip. At the beginning I thought no, because I have this strange love for port cities. But at the end of my trip, I thought why not? Lake Michigan is big enough to trick you into thinking it’s the ocean.

The Land of Forgotten Memories

"There exists somewhere in a parallel universe, a Land of Forgotten Memories.

 I know for sure because I've been there."

 This world is an open place, easily accessible but difficult to leave. The land exists in levels. A visitor enters at the lowest point, where memories have entered the land and are still memories. They have been forgotten by the people who created them, but only just. Somewhere on the borderline of your mind, they still float, unsure of where to go. But they don't stay here long. In a little while they move to level 2. Here they are completely  forgotten and are thus no longer memories, but forgetems. This is a term used for memories which are forgotten and will in all likelihood never be remembered again.
Its an interesting story of how these lands got created. Once upon a time, many years after our very own universe had been created, another parallel universe was on the verge of being formed. The Creator (as we shall refer to him), decided that as man's brain developed, he'd have many more memories, soon too many for our own universe to handle. At the same time, it wasn't fair to man to discard these memories. Some brought him joy at being recalled, some brought sadness, some brought anger, but most of all, man seemed to have learnt the most out of these memories. They helped him grow. So the Creator fashioned a parallel universe, running alongside ours, to store them.
Almost like an archive. It worked well for a while. But soon the memories multiplied beyond control and they got completely jumbled up. It became difficult for man to extract the required memory. And even if he did succeed in doing so,more often than not it brought other irrelevant memories to mind as well.
"This won't do." thought the Creator. Things had to get more organized. And so he split the universe into a number of sections, each designated to a certain kind of memory. These sections were called 'Lands'. And so got created the land of happy memories, sad memories, memories to be learnt from, memories that instigated anger, memories of data, funny memories and the list goes on. Among these lands is the land of lost memories. The land a the end of this universe. It is the darkest, most morbid land ever created and is a constant threat to the other memories, for nobody wants to end up here. Nobody and nothing wishes to be forgotten. These 'forgetems' are memories of people, places, incidents or all together, which have happened at a certain point in time, but being of either no consequence to anybody or very painful they have been forgotten or blocked out respectively. For example, when you left your residence to go to the bus stop in the morning, you might have passed certain people on the street. However, being absorbed in your own world, you failed to really notice them. And so, the incident is forgotten and filed in the Land of Forgotten Memories.
(to be continued)

The Imaginary Friend

  
Just last week I visited the hospital, requiring medication for a mere cough and cold. As I sat myself down to wait my turn, I noticed amongst the people sitting there, a little boy. He was probably just 5 or 6 years old; a skinny guy, with huge spectacles perched upon his nose.

A cute kid; he was there with a man and woman I shall assume to be his parents. They were deeply engaged in conversation and the little boy was left to amuse himself. Like all kids that age do, he preferred to kneel on the bench and look at the rows of patients waiting behind. He was smiling and waving. At times he even played a bit of hide-and-seek, ducking behind the backrest and suddenly popping up, laughing all the while. Who was he playing with I wondered, turning around to look for the patient who had the energy to amuse this child. But nobody paid him the slightest bit of attention. I really did scan the place, but found no answer. So I jumped to the next most obvious conclusion. This boy had an imaginary friend.

I am no expert in psychology, but I did assume that the imagination of a person who is not present, or may not even exist in physical reality, is a disorder. And I did actually Google it. But it turns out that it isn't and it is in fact due to a very good imagination and can also be beneficial for the child!

They provide comfort in times of stress, companionship when they're lonely, someone to boss around when they feel powerless, and someone to blame for the broken lamp in the living room. Most important, an imaginary companion is a tool young children use to help them make sense of the adult world.

And I immediately wondered, what would it be like to have an imaginary friend? It didn't seem so crazy. Its almost like having a diary, except one that you can talk to and will reply. What would my friend be like?
Well for starters, his name would be Benjamin. People would call him Ben, but I being his best friend would call him 'Benjy'. Me and only me. He'd be a happy person, smiling all the time, because I couldn't bear to be with someone whom I'd have to pamper and constantly mopes around. I can be fairly narcissistic sometimes. He'd make me laugh with his incredible sense of humor and when he smiles, he can out do the sun.
Benjy would have a mop of brown, unruly hair, amber colored eyes and freckles and would know me so well that he'd never have to ask questions. He'd just read my mind and know what I'm thinking. You could say that we'd communicate almost....telepathically. Sounds too ideal? Well if  I can't fashion a person who is just a figment of my imagination to be perfect, then what's the use I say? 
Benjy would be a genuine fan of the Lord of the Rings series. Not just someone who's seen all the movies and think they are 'awesome'. He'd truly appreciate the genius that is J.R.R Tolkien and the world that he has invented. Of course he'd have read Harry Potter and we'd discuss the ending to the series, until the late hours of the night. 
He'd walk me to work and pick me up later, while I babbled on about my day and all I did. We'd discuss films and tv serials. Since I'm not at home in the afternoon, he'd patiently fill me in on all that's happened on Grey's Anatomy.
But 'Benjy' who has gone from being the painting done on my t-shirt 16 years ago, to an imaginary friend is special and I'd never want to hurt him... ever. He's always been there for me and the truth is when I'm with him I can't be there for someone else. I know that if I want I can keep Benjy with me forever, but the truth is that I don't need to. Because I love Benjy, I must let him go. Out there somewhere in the world is a child who really needs him to be her companion. For the time being at least. And then when she's brave enough to face the world, she will, with a heavy heart let him go too. 
And so the memory of Benjy will be eternal.