Chicago is a powerfully magnetic city. With its sumptuous avenues and sordid districts, it is dizzily avant-garde, an electric blend of reality and illusion.
Chicago, city of passions. Photos ŠCyril le Tourneur d'Ison/Lightmediation Contact - Thierry Tinacci Lightmediation Photo Agency +33 (0)6 61 80 57 21 thierry@lightmediation
1369-16: There are so many fire brigades in Chicago, since the time of the tremendous fire in 1871, destroying most of the city.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-01:Tribune Tower from the other side of Chicago river. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-02: Downtown Chicago from the Millenium Park with Jay Pritzker music pavillon on the front. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-03: Downtown Chicago from Millenium Park. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-04: Chicago lake front view from the south of the city. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-05: Chicago view from north of the city. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-06: Panoramic view of the city from Hancock Observatory. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-07: Buildings in Near North district. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-08: The Tribune Tower built in 1925. / /
1369-26: Chicago river is crossing the magnificent Wrigley Building district.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-09: Reflections in the famous hearth of the city, the Loop. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-10: Through the glassy front of the huge Mac Donald restaurant on State street. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-11: Patriotics advertising in a Michigan avenue store. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-12: Dubuffet sculptures through the State of illinois Center building. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-13: Restaurant sign in trendies streets of Near North district. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-14: Business center on La Salle st. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-15: Buildings from the thirties, losted in a urban chaos. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-16: There are so many fire brigades in Chicago, since the time of the tremendous fire in 1871, destroying most of the city. / /
1369-01: Tribune Tower from the other side of Chicago river.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-17: Sad evening day on West Chicago avenue. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-18: La Salle street is crossed by the El, the elevated railway, unique to Chicago. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-19: The El, the elevated subway, crossing south downtown. A network covering most of the city and an unique view from the trains. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-20: La Salle street is closed by one of the most famous 1930 buildings : the Chicago Board of trade. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-21: On La Salle street, most buildings have the same style than the Chicago Board of trade. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-22: Entrance of the Marquette Building on Deadborn street, in the Loop district. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-23: The front building of Carson Pirie & Scott Co. made by Louis Sullivan, Madison and State street. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-24: Neo gothic architecture under the elevated subway. / /
1369-19: The El, the elevated subway, crossing south downtown. A network covering most of the city and an unique view from the trains.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-25: Architecture from the thirties surrounding the Wrigley building. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-26: Chicago river is crossing the magnificent Wrigley Building district. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-27: Arising bridges on Chicago river. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-28: View of the city from Navy Pier and his park. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-29: Bridge linked between Millenium park and downtown. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-30: Wedding photo shooting in front the entrance of the Wrigley Building. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-31: The Civic Opera overlooking the Chicago river with so many bridges. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-32: Corner in Near North area. / /
1369-24: Neo gothic architecture under the elevated subway.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-33: Painting walls south of Chicago, where black people mostly live. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-34: Michael Jordan sculpture in front of the Chicago Bulls building. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-35: Miro sculpture in Loop business area. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-36: Light reveals the neo gothic architecture facing the elevated subway. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-37: Lots of emergency stairs attached with 1930,1950 building generations. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-38: Singular details of the Harold Washington library architecture. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-39: Decoration of the Rock and Roll Mac Donald in Near North area. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-40: 1950 style on the front of this restaurant in Near North Area. / /
1369-34: Michael Jordan sculpture in front of the Chicago Bulls building.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-41: The Rock and Roll Mac Donald restaurant in Near North Area. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-42: The famous Wrigley Field stadium from Chicago erected during the twenties. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-43: Graceland Cimetery has a lot of glorious names from the history of Chicago. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-44: South of downtown Chicago, useless metallic bridge. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-45: Metallic architecture above the river Chicago for cars and elevated subway. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-46: Monumental stairs take place inside the Art Institute. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-47: A gallery inside the Art Institute. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-48: Ceiling paintings inside the Intercontinental Hotel. / /
1369-30: Wedding photo shooting in front the entrance of the Wrigley Building.
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-49: Union station, the main railway station in Chicago. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-50: Blue Chicago, one of the famous places for blues music fans. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-51: Shades and lights playing with the Tribune tower. / /
Chicago, la belle américaine - Chicago, city of passions / 1369-52: The Civic Opera Building, a very imposing facade. / /
1369-53: The elevated subway crossing the Loop district.
1369-54: The Tribune Tower, from the west bank of the Chicago river.
1369-50: Blue Chicago, one of the famous places for blues music fans.
Chicago, city of passions. Chicago is a powerfully magnetic city. With its sumptuous avenues and sordid districts, it is dizzily avant-garde, an electric blend of reality and illusion. The panoramic view from the 94th storey of the John Hancock Center shows Lake Michigan as an infinite expanse of perfectly deep blue. The parks to the North of the city look like private gardens; to the South, the Loop is an astonishing sight with its impeccably ordered buildings and harmony of colour. Back on ground level, looking up at the Hancock Center's brutally black, tapering façade, like Gertrud Stein I wonder how the city's skyscrapers manage to descend from the sky. Downtown Chicago just oozes with creativity. Michigan Avenue - « The Magnificent Mile » - is the city's spinal cord; stretching between lake and river, it boasts an astonishing diversity of architectural styles. Its most emblematic building, the « Water Tower », miraculously escaped destruction when the Great Fire devastated Chicago in 1971, and the people decided that « Chicago will rise again ». This mythical endeavour, chronicled by the Chicago Tribune, brought young architects flooding into the city to offer their energy and services to the rebuilding project. The result was an exceptional influx of avant-garde architectural influences. Michigan Avenue has Second Empire style buildings alongside Venetian Gothic.
The InterContinental is an exuberant example of Art Nouveau, with a swimming pool as splendid as that of Hearst Castle in Citizen Kane. The Equitable Building, on the site where Jean-Baptiste du Sable, the city's founding father, settled the first colony in 1779, is made of pure glass, while the dazzling white Wrigley Building is a tribute to Seville's Giralda Tower. The Auditorium Building, with its naturalist motifs and geometrical lines, was designed by the romantic poet who invented the concept of organic architecture, Louis Sullivan, later eclipsed by Frank Lloyd Wright, father of the soberly horizontal Prairie style houses. It was also on Michigan Avenue that Frank Gehry gave vent to the same buoyant spirit that earned him such glory in Bilbao for the Museum of Modern Art. The Pritzker Music Pavilion's stainless steel pipes crisscrossing through space are stamped with the Gehry signature. And the famous Art Institute of Chicago on the western edge of the park is a fine example of Italian Renaissance architecture and one of the richest museums in the United States. Its most moving and little-known works are the paintings of Japanese artists of the first half of the 20th century: « Shin-ôhasi Bridge in Tokyo » by Kawase Hasui is pure astral poetry, and « Spring Night at Ginza » by Kasamatsu Shiro sends shivers of emotion down the visitor's spine.