{"id":9901,"date":"2010-03-16T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=9901"},"modified":"2010-03-16T10:33:01","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T14:33:01","slug":"notes-from-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/03\/16\/notes-from-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visiting Chicago last weekend I thought it might be a good idea to take some notes for Spacing.\u00a0 This would be, I thought, in line with Matt Blackett’s 2007 post<\/a> and Shawn Micallef”s two posts<\/a> from 2006<\/a>, and after all isn’t it always a good idea to keep an eye on your sister (city)?\u00a0 So, in that spirit, here are some “do’s” from Chicago.\u00a0 Originally I thought it would be good to do an urban “do’s” and “don’ts”, but \u2026 I didn’t manage to come up with any “don’ts” in the end so looks like we’ll just have to make do with a list of “do’s”.<\/p>\n

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DO:\u00a0 Many tall buildings that relate to one another.\u00a0 While it is hardly an original point, it is always worth pointing out the vibrancy of a compact cluster of tall buildings.\u00a0 There can so much hesitancy in Toronto around building tall that it sometimes seems like we need to be reminded of the value of heightened density, even if only from a purely poetic perspective, never mind the practical aspects.<\/p>\n

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DO:\u00a0 Interesting public Art that responds to its site.\u00a0 Toronto has a few interesting works, most notably the Henry Moore next to the AGO, but we also have a lot of pretty horrific attempts\u00a0\u2014 at any rate nothing like this great Calder sculpture, Flamingo, which engages so skillfully with the Mies van der Rohe\u00a0 building against which it is set.\u00a0 Chicago also boasts a wonderful Miro and a Picasso, both of which just serve to underline the point that we need to demand more from our public art.\u00a0 It is an important component of the character of a city and not something to be treated lightly.\u00a0 I will be interesting for instance to see what Paul Raff comes up with for the new Underpass Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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DO: Big shiny beans.\u00a0 Anish Kapoor’s sculpture acts as a kick-ass gateway to Millennium Park.\u00a0 I find the incessant corporate sponsorship to be unnerving (this sculpture, called the Cloud Gate is located in AT&T Plaza, between the Chase Promenade and the McCormick Tribune Plaza, etc., etc.) but if that’s what it takes to fund an amenity like Millennium Park today then it is pretty hard to argue with.\u00a0 Kapoor apparently did not like this siting for the sculpture, but I think it couldn’t be situated better and would have been kind of lost further to the east where he had intended it.<\/p>\n

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DO:\u00a0 Informal markets.\u00a0 This photo isn’t the best but I think the Maxwell Street Market serves as a great example of the value of informal open-air markets, where the cost of being there is not prohibitive for small vendors, as can so often happen.\u00a0 Cities really don’t need to go much out of their way to provide for this sort of phenomenon, and when they do make a point of going out of their way it can so quickly becomes “precious”.\u00a0 This market, for which the city’s contribution amounts to shutting down one street and part of another, once a week, is far more ruckus than precious\u00a0\u2014 you can buy anything from propane heaters to socks to Mexican wrestling masks, and while there tends to be a handful of notably hipster-looking patrons lurking about, the market has resisted gentrification, even after having been around for over 100 years.<\/p>\n

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DO:\u00a0 Subway entrance covers.\u00a0 We could do with some of these, although it would appear that our very own covers might not be that far off<\/a> in the future.\u00a0 I just hope that the TTC realizes that there is nothing wrong with the sort of understated class in evidence here.\u00a0 It is<\/em> possible to design infrastructure, like these handsome covers, that are neither boringly pragmatic nor going out of their way to be “flashy”.<\/p>\n

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an obvious DO:\u00a0 Furry bus shelters …\u00a0 Enough said?\u00a0 It turns out that this was just an ad campaign that was on while I was there, but it’s pretty awesome.\u00a0 Why wouldn’t Toronto want one?<\/p>\n

Photo credits: Jeremy McGregor, Chloe Doesburg, Duncan Patterson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Visiting Chicago last weekend I thought it might be a good idea to take some notes for Spacing.\u00a0 This would be, I thought, in line with Matt Blackett’s 2007 post and Shawn Micallef”s two posts from 2006, and after all isn’t it always a good idea to keep an eye on your sister (city)?\u00a0 So,Continue reading “Notes from Chicago”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4043,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[12441,14592,431,14594,6762,14593,498,14595,14591,21,1727,14590,19,14564],"class_list":["post-9901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-anish-kapoor","tag-att-plaza","tag-chicago","tag-chloe-doesburg","tag-duncan-patterson","tag-jeremy-mcgregor","tag-matt-blackett","tag-mccormick","tag-mccormick-tribune-plaza","tag-other-cities","tag-paul-raff","tag-rohe-building","tag-toronto","tag-underpass-park"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNotes from Chicago - 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