May 11 - 17, 2020 Vol. 28 No. 19
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StreetWise Vendors are Feeling Supported StreetWise has been honored by the tremendous support for our vendors and jobseekers during this very crucial time. StreetWise works in a unique nexus between homeless and employment services. More than 250 people rely on StreetWise for immediate employment through the sale of StreetWise Magazine and workforce development services to reenter the labor market. The pandemic effectively laid off more than 120 magazine vendors as they are unable to purchase the magazine for 90 cents, then sell the magazine in the community for $2. Jobseekers in the workforce development program face challenges with employment and skills gaps for the current available new jobs. But that isn't how the story ends! Each week we have: • Distributed more than 400 meals and pantry items to our community. 45% of our vendors rely on StreetWise as their main source for food (thanks so much to our friends at World Central Kitchen, Isaiah Project, The Zwirn Family and The Daily Planet Ltd.); • Handed out more than 150 hygiene kits including extra soap, and more than 200 masks-and now disposable gloves (thank you to the staff and families at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy); • Encouraged regular hand washing and sanitizing to keep all our vendors and their families safe. This week, we stocked up on 5 gallons of hand sanitizer for people to continue staying safe at StreetWise Headquarters (thank you to our new friends at Thornton Distillery and Apologue Liqueurs). These items are essential for the health and safety of our participants and allow them to direct other cash relief toward housing, utilities, phone, transportation, and medications.
DONATE
Contributions to the Vendor Emergency Relief Fund provide a lifeline for those cut off from income earning opportunities. Since the shelter-inplace went into effect, we have: • Distributed more than 250 cash subsidies totaling over $15,000 so far; • Provided critical technology access and support to assist vendors and jobseekers applying for additional emergency relief including federal stimulus and private funds (thanks to our partners at the YWCA). You can also support your vendor by purchasing digital issues and subscriptions to StreetWise Magazine. To do our part to flatten the curve, we have: • Launched the "I'm Still Here" Campaign to encourage purchases and subscriptions of StreetWise Magazine - published exclusively online. Since the launch, digital sales have increased by 150%; • Kept our promise to provide socially-conscious news and raise awareness on the impact of poverty and homelessness in Chicago, across the nation, and around the world. These efforts provide vendors with some income and preserve the StreetWise model to provide a hand up, not a handout. It is essential for StreetWise to keep its doors open to provide emergency relief and support, to serve as a place for vendors to get up-todate information, and to check in and maintain their connection to the broader community. Your continued support is crucial in this effort! We thank you for all you have done to support our vendors at this time and look forward to a time when we can reconnect in person. We know our vendors can't wait to see you again! Please stay healthy, Julie Youngquist Executive Director | StreetWise
To make a donation to StreetWise, visit our website at www.streetwise.org/donate/ or cut out this form and mail it with your donation to StreetWise, Inc., 2009 S. State St., Chicago, IL 60616. We appreciate your support!
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SportsWise
SportsWise Team member John Hagan chats about his time at StreetWise, working on SportsWise, and the coronavirus.
Arts & (Home) Entertainment
As all Chicago events and gatherings are cancelled until further notice, we are replacing our usual calendar with recommendations from StreetWise vendors, readers and staff to keep you entertained at home!
Cover Story: Michgan AVenue Bridge
The Michigan Avenue Bridge, which opened 100 years ago May 14, opened North Michigan Avenue to development as the glamorous street of today. We talk about the bridge and its relationship to the Chicago River; the four architecturally significant buildings at each corner of the bridge; about Streeterville, the squatter community that became some of the city's priciest real estate; and about Towertown, the gay and artistic community halfway up the street around Chicago Avenue and the Water Tower.
The Playground ON THE COVER: The Michigan Avenue Bridge (photo provided by McCormick Bridgehouse Muesum). THIS PAGE: Wide shot of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive (Anne Evans / courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Center).
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Dave Hamilton, Creative Director/Publisher
dhamilton@streetwise.org
Suzanne Hanney, Editor-In-Chief
suzannestreetwise@yahoo.com
Amanda Jones, Director of programs
ajones@streetwise.org
Julie Youngquist, CEO
jyoungquist@streetwise.org
Ph: 773-334-6600 Office: 2009 S. State St., Chicago, IL, 60616
StreetWiseChicago @StreetWise_CHI LEARN MORE AT streetwise.org
Vendor John Hagan chats about the world of sports with Executive Assistant Patrick Edwards.
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Patrick: What about SportsWise? How did the role come about? John: I began SportsWise during Winter 2015. It was a blast, too. It was me, Vince Collaso, Russell Adams, and Bill Coats. Today, Donald’s on board after replacing Vince, and, you, Patrick, after replacing Bill Coats. Patrick: Interesting. All right, so let's get to what we’re here for then, cool? A hot topic courtesy of SportsWise. John: Sounds good. Okay, before I go on, I first wanna say that I hope that Russell Adams & Donald Morris are doing okay. I miss seeing those guys regularly. Patrick: Me, too. And they are well. John: Good. So the question I want to answer is: Should the NHL/NBA/and MLB play games without fans during the COVID-19 outbreak? Speaking only for myself, I believe the answer
is Yes, they should play the games without the fans. With the weather getting warmer, I say it's time to get back to work, which is what Phase 1 of starting the economy is all about. I think there'll be nothing better than to have live sports again. Patrick: Well, I wouldn't be against watching some live sports on TV. John: I'm sure we aren't the only ones. And even if this means no fans in the stands, just to get away from the daily stress of thinking COVID-19 thoughts and behaving according to the disease's puppeteering, I think it'll be worth it. Patrick: Interesting. Anything else to add? John: Yes. Landlords won't be patient, plus we can care for people and reopen the economy at the same time. And, yes, I believe this to be the best solution out there today. Patrick: Cool. Thanks, John,
Hagan
for your perspective on the relationship between COVID-19 and sporting viewership. You've definitely put something on my mind, and I’m sure on others’ minds. Now, I do have one more question--a quick one—Why do you continue with StreetWise after all these years? Especially with having your hands in various aspects of the business--and that's not even talking about religiously standing at your spot and selling the magazine. So, what is it? John: Well, first, You’re welcome. Plain and simple, I do this because it gives me an opportunity to remain independent.
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SPORTSWISE
Patrick: Welcome to this week's edition of SportsWise. Today I sit down with John Hagan. But before we get into it, John, tell the people a little bit about yourself. John: What do you want to know? Patrick: Well, to begin with, when did you begin at StreetWise? John: I began in January 2014. At the time, I chose StreetWise over Temporary Labor Agency Staff Networking because I could work my own hours and be paid every day. Patrick: How many years into your tenure did you become part of the QAT (quality assurance team)? John: It was about a year later (December 2014) when I became QAT. On the “StreetWise Meet the QAT Team,” it was me, Lawrence Brown, Scott Elders, Russell Adams, A. Allen, Jimmie Beckless, Don Smith, and a guy named Jason.
interview with vendor John
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ARTS & (HOME) ENTERTAINMENT RECOMMENDATIONS Since being stuck inside, which shows have you been watching? Which movies? Have you read any good books lately? Any new music releases have you dancing in your living room? StreetWise vendors, readers and staff are sharing what is occupying their attention during this unprecedented time. To be featured in a future edition, send your recommendations and why you love them to Creative Director / Publisher Dave Hamilton at dhamilton@streetwise.org
Tale a Field Trip with Lori!
Stay Home, Hit Play Mayor Lori Lightfoot ushers penguins into the Shedd Aquarium, where she feeds the sharks in the premiere of a new virtual Chicago “field trip� exploration series, "Stay Home, Hit Play," available online at hitplaychicago.org. The series also airs on WTTW at 5:30 p.m. Fridays and Mondays in partnership with Citadel. The series is intended to bring Chicagoans eye to eye with Chicago culture during the shelter-in-place. Along with each episode, students will find corresponding online educational activities to enrich their experience at not only the Shedd, but the Art Institute, Museum of Science and Industry, DuSable Museum, National Museum of Mexican Art and more.
(HOME) ENTERTAINMENT
Tour a Gallery Virtually!
The Block from Home: 'Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s' This week, The Block Museum at Northwestern University was scheduled to be putting the finishing touches on the installation of "Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s" and welcoming guests to the opening celebration. The Block hopes to present this extraordinary exhibition, organized by the Grey Art Gallery at NYU and the Barjeel Art Foundation, at a future date. Until then, its colleagues at NYU have created a rich web portal with images and text covering all the works from the exhibition at https://bit.ly/2KUfLWY.
Work it Out!
Joffery Ballet's Aaron Renteria's Workout Sessions If you're stuck at home because your gym isn't open during the pandemic, how about this upper body workout on YouTube with the Joffrey Ballet's Aaron Renteria? Not too difficult, it features 30-second to 2-minute stomach planks to "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish. Renteria began studying at the San Francisco Ballet at age 13 and in 2016 he came to Joffrey, where he has danced in Jerome Robbins' "Interplay and Glass Pieces;" George Balanchine's "The Four Temperaments," Christopher Wheeldon's "Fool's Paradise" and "The Nutcracker," Alexander Ekman's "Midsummer Night's Dream" and more. -Recommended by Suzanne Hanney, StreetWise editor
Stream This!
Live Music Streams One of the ways that I have tempered my longing for being in the world is by staying tuned in to my favorite musicians’ live sessions on Instagram/whatever platform they can manage to work. Bonus adorable points if your faves are older and less technologically apt. I have found that these short livestreams have been great pick-me-ups. You get to hear music you love in a pretty intimate setting, get their perspective of the times and get a glimpse of their home lives, which if I’m being honest, is the best part of any livestream right now. Seeing band members figure out how to individually do shows or virtually collaborate has been interesting and has led to some great new music and exposition of talent. Who knew I needed a cooking tutorial from my favorite trombonist? Virtual DJ sets have also been excellent soundtracks to doing things around the house and lifting spirits. It’s definitely a weird forum, but I find it does feel like I am keeping connected while getting a little private show. Remember to tip what you can to those smaller artists who need the extra help! [Pictured: ska band The Slackers] -Recommended by StreetWise reader Michelle Himsalam
In case You Missed It!
Roma "It was about life in Mexico, a year in the life of a maid and her relationship with her employer. It was interesting to see how close she was with the family and the children. They all loved her and she was part of the family. The family went through some hardships and I was concerned that they wouldn’t be able to keep her on as a maid. The family was concerned with the happiness of the maid, too. She looked so serious throughout the movie, it was emotional. I wasn’t sure what the outcome of this movie was gonna be, but I liked it! I feel like I learned a little bit about Mexican culture in the '70s, too. I would say 5 stars." Now streaming on Netflix. -Recommended by StreetWise Vendor V.W.
Entertain the Kids!
Laura Doherty Music Live Stream Kids Shows Award-winning local family artist Laura Doherty is hosting three 45-minute live streams each week “in an effort to bring music and smiles to families during this difficult time” of COVID-19. Each show is streamed through the artist’s Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/lauradohertymusic/) and Instagram (@lauradohertymusic) and will have a specific theme. The shows are available to all at no charge but there is a virtual tip jar if you’d like to support the artist! Tuesdays 3 p.m.; Wednesdays 10 a.m.; Fridays noon. Doherty is also for hire to do virtual birthday parties for kids over Zoom or Google Hangouts!
Binge This!
Friends Friends is a classic, beloved by so many people, and it is my favorite TV show. With the wide variety of characters, and with 10 seasons to get to know them, everyone can find themselves in the show. It is perfect for a time like this, because it makes people laugh, and we could all use some laughter! Even though the show left Netflix, you can still watch it on live TV (on TBS), stream it (single episodes and full seasons are available to purchase on Amazon, iTunes and YouTube), or buy the seasons on DVD. Even if you’ve seen the show before, the great thing about Friends is that new things can be found to enjoy each time you watch it - watching again will be like coming home to (dysfunctional) family. -Recommended by Rachel Koertner, StreetWise editorial intern
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The100 100 year year H The H Michigan Avenu Michigan Aven by Suzanne Hanney
T T
he opening of the Michigan Avenue Bridge 100 years ago - on May 14, 1920 - began a transformation of the area directly north into the “New Gateway of the Greater Chicago” and the glamorous street of today. Both north and south of the Chicago River, Michigan Avenue had been narrow and congested, a street of utility buildings. Between Randolph Street and the river, there were wholesale stores, industrial buildings and warehouses for the shipping canals and railroad spurs to the east, as well as the South Water Street Market, the city’s central produce market, to the west. North of the river, “Pine Street,” as it was then known, was an area of light industry, food processing, and warehouses. As early as 1904, however, the old Michigan Avenue Bridge and the Rush Street Bridge were termed inadequate for their volumes of traffic, according to a story in the Chicago Daily Tribune.
The idea of making Michigan Avenue a major north-south thoroughfare and of developing the area gained traction from Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett’s “Plan of Chicago” in 1909. Burnham had been the architect for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Afterward, he had continued his career in urban planning along the lines of the world’s fair’s Beaux Arts ideal, where “the goal was to produce structures of monumental grandeur, buildings that both delighted the eye and conveyed an image of rational order,” according to the Chicago Landmarks Commission. Three facets of the Plan of Chicago -- construction of the new Michigan Avenue Bridge, widening Michigan Avenue, and redesigning Michigan Avenue and East South Water Street as bilevel roadways -- shaped the city of today.
History Historyof of the the ue Bridge nue Bridge Michigan Avenue Michigan Avenue Bridge Bridge
Opened May 14, 1920, -- 100 years ago -- the Michigan Avenue Bridge is the most celebrated in Chicago, the first double-leaf, doubledeck fixed trunnion bascule bridge ever built, which created the north-south thoroughfare that is now the Magnificent Mile. Since October 2010, the bridge has been named in honor of Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, Chicago’s first permanent settler.
The DuSable / Michigan Avenue Bridge in 2011 (Chris Lake photo).
A bascule bridge is essentially a drawbridge, which operates like a seesaw on a pivot point, with its long arm extending over the water, balanced by a counterweight. “Bascule,” the term for counterweight, comes from the French verb baculer, which means to strike on the buttocks, which the lowered counterweight resembles when the bridge is raised, notes Patrick T. McBriarty in “Chicago River Bridges” (University of Illinois Press: 2013). “Trunnion” refers to the pin and supporting bearing that form the hinge that allow the bridge leaves to move up and down. According to the website of the McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum on the southwest corner of the bridge, “the balance of the approximately 4,100-ton bridge leaf and 12,000-ton counterweight of the bridge is so precise, it only takes a 108-horsepower motor to open and close each leaf.” The motor powers a series of gears, the last of which is called a pinion gear, [which] grasps grooves in the counterweight, pushing it into a pit and lifting the bridge’s long arm into the air, “an engineering marvel even today.” On May 14, the museum will host local bridge experts in a virtual centennial celebration on its social media (www.bridgehousemuseum.org). The widest bascule bridge in the world when it was built, the Michigan Avenue Bridge is actually two side-by-side double leaf bridges, so that two northbound lanes, for example, can be used for traffic while the southbound lanes are undergoing maintenance or repair, according to McBriarty. The first bridge designed to carry automobiles on both decks, its two upper decks provide three lanes, each 28 feet wide, and two 14-foot sidewalks.
Its lower deck has two lanes in each direction, each 18 feet wide. Chicago has long hosted the world’s greatest collection of drawbridges, McBriarty notes, because these bridges can accommodate ships while also allowing other forms of transportation, such as horse and buggy, trains or autos (though not at the same time). When it was first built, the Michigan Avenue Bridge would lift more than 3,000 times a year, but today it lifts roughly 40 times a year and visitors can see the bridgeworks in motion at the five-story McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum. Located at 99 Chicago Riverwalk, the museum was opened in 2006 by Friends of the Chicago River to show the dynamic relationship between Chicago and its river. Although narrow and slow-moving, the Chicago River has been an important waterway since Native Americans dominated the area. It is this river that made the city what it is, McBriarty notes. Before there were planes, trains or automobiles, waterways were the only means of travel and transport. In 1673, the explorer Louis Jolliet and the Jesuit priest Father Jacques Marquette learned from Native Americans about a shortcut to the Mississippi River: the Chicago “portage.” When the swampy portage (roughly seven miles of land from what is now roughly 26th Street and Western Avenue to 49th Street and Harlem), was flooded, explorers could float their canoes from the south fork of the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River, which flowed successively into the Illinois River and then the Mississippi. In dry spells, however, the explorers had to drag their canoes over rollers, amid mosquitos and leeches. Jolliet had mused about a canal – a continuous water route -- in place of the portage. Over 150 years later, in 1822, Congress made the first land appropriation for the Illinois & Michigan Canal, which replaced the portage. Opened in 1848, the I & M Canal connected the Chicago River at Bridgeport with the Illinois River at LaSalle, 96 miles away. There was now a water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, with Chicago at its center. In the 1880s, Chicago became the busiest port in the world; its population doubled from 500,000 to one million people by 1890.
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Wrigley Building Wrigley Building
Completed in 1921, the 24-story original Wrigley Building was the first major commercial structure constructed north of the Chicago River after the opening of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in 1920, “the new Gateway of Greater Chicago.” As a result, the building “inaugurated the rapid commercial development of North Michigan Avenue during the first half of the 20th century,” according to its City of Chicago landmark designation report. Because it is located at a bend in the Chicago River at the northwest intersection with Michigan Avenue, the Wrigley Building can be seen as far south as Roosevelt Road. Along with its 16-story annex built in 1924, it is one of Chicago’s most recognizable buildings, because it has always been lit at night. Giving it a “wedding cake effect” are its 250,000 terra cotta tiles in varying shades of white, lighter near the top. Commissioned by William Wrigley Jr., owner of the largest manufacturer of gum products in the world, the building was designed by Charles G. Beersman. The main structure is in the 16th century French Renaissance style of Francis I, with fleur-de-lis, gryphons (mythical winged creatures with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion) as well as swags, urns and cornucopia. Its 11-story clock tower was inspired by the Giralda Tower of the Spanish Renaissance Seville Cathedral, with Moorish influences.
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The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance in 1913 and then a bond issue for construction of the bridge and widening of Michigan Avenue. The North Central Business District Association was formed that same year around the same two goals. Bennett, who headed the association’s architects’ committee, advocated public spaces at both ends of the bridge, to provide the setting for “a grand architectural ensemble worthy of the Chicago of the future," on what the North Central Association hoped would become "the World’s Greatest Thoroughfare,” according to the Landmarks Commission. Bennett himself designed the four Beaux Arts style bridge tenders’ houses. In addition, the architects’ committee promoted the idea of monumental buildings at each of the four corners of the Michigan Avenue Bridge as gateposts to the new boulevard. Eventually, their vision was completed with construction of the Wrigley Building (1921), the London Guarantee and Accident Building (1923), Tribune Tower (1925) and 333 North Michigan Avenue (1927-28). Meanwhile, land acquisition began in 1916, Michigan Avenue widening and bridge construction in 1918. When it was completed after two years at a cost of $14.9 million (equivalent to $222.4 million today), the Michigan Avenue Bridge was called the most important realization of the Plan of Chicago since its publication in 1909. A month before the new bridge opened, William Wrigley Jr. announced that he had already laid the foundations for the first commercial structure on Michigan Avenue built north of the river after its widening. Wrigley was the world’s largest producer of chewing gum, with annual sales of $27 million by 1919, and he sought a new site for his corporate headquarters, which had grown rapidly and moved several times around Chicago. Wrigley Building (Anne Evans, courtesy of the Chicago Architrcture Center). The Michigan Avenue Bridge shortly after it opened in 1920 (Library of Congress). London House (Eric Allix Rogers, courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Center).
“The site that Wrigley finally selected – a trapezoidal lot at the northwest corner of Pine Street and the Chicago River – reflected his astute business sense and a knack for seizing opportunities at the right time,” according to the Chicago Landmarks Commission designation report on the Wrigley Building. Because the site was located at a bend in the Chicago River, a building there would seem to straddle Michigan Avenue and could be seen two miles south down the street. “A building at this site would set the tone of the new and undoubtedly important thoroughfare and would solidify the positive reputation of the Wrigley Building among its customers,” according to the Landmarks Commission. Wrigley engaged the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, which also produced Chicago landmarks such as the Field Museum of Natural History (1920), Union Station (1913-25), main U.S. Post Office Building (1921, expanded 1932) Pittsfield Building (1927), Civic Opera House (1929) and Merchandise Mart (1930). As the successor to Daniel Burnham’s firm, Graham, Anderson et al was conversant with the historical European and classical Greek and Roman designs of the Beaux Arts style used for the 1893 world’s fair, and the City Beautiful movement. Charles G. Beersman, the architect given the Wrigley commission, had also studied the needs of New York and Chicago real estate.
London Guarantee London Guarantee Building Building
Built on the site of Fort Dearborn on the southwest side of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, the London Guarantee & Accident Building is one of four buildings that have anchored the Michigan Avenue Bridge since the 1920s, with throwback ideas from the World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893, one of the stars on the Chicago flag. Designed by Alfred S. Alschuler and completed in 1923, the building’s Beaux Arts facade features Corinthian columns and Roman figures, with a cupola atop the 22-story tower. A sculpture of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, sits above the main entrance, a reference to the maritime insurance sold by the building’s British namesake firm. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the London House on the building’s ground floor was one of the foremost jazz clubs in the U.S., and hosted musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Frank Sinatra, Ramsey Lewis, George Shearing, Barbara Carroll and many others. Meanwhile, the Stone Container Corporation signed a long-term lease in the 1960s, followed years later by Crain Communications. The building was largely empty when Oxford Capital Group acquired it in 2013 and two years later, announced an ambitious restoration project. The 452-room LondonHouse hotel, opened in 2016, takes its name from the mid-century jazz club. It features a 22-story glass addition with ballrooms and meeting spaces designed by Goettsch Partners and a threelevel rooftop lounge.
Beersman structured the building with a three-story entrance, a tall monumental middle zone of uniform floors and a 398foot clock tower modeled after the Spanish Renaissance Giralda Tower of Seville Cathedral–just two feet short of what Chicago then allowed. He chose white terra cotta tiles – lightweight and fireproof – to clad the steel skeleton in a variety of fanciful 16th century French Renaissance, Francis I designs: urns, gryphons, fleur-de-lis, cornucopias and swags. Its total cost came to $8 million, and Wrigley paid in cash, from the financial reserves of the chewing gum company. The Wrigley Building was completely rented by the time it opened on April 1, 1921, and so in August 1922, Wrigley acquired leases on adjoining land for an annex, also designed by Beersman. Wrigley called his decision, “an expression of my personal faith in the future of Chicago. Chicago still lags behind New York in public improvements but I hold out great hope for the future and am staking little money on my belief,” according to the Landmarks Commission. The building did indeed spur development along North Michigan Avenue, but not to the west, as Burnham had envisioned. Construction of the bridge alone had made the land highly desirable for those who wanted lower prices, more light, wide streets and less congestion near the Loop. Speculators bought up warehouses, commercial buildings and surviving residences, and banks went along with them, providing easy terms. www.streetwise.org
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Tribune Tower Tower Tribune
Tribune Tower, completed in 1925 on the north side of the Michigan Avenue bridge, reflects the desire of then-Tribune President, Col. Robert R. McCormick, that the newspaper be seen as important internationally. It is the product of an international design competition to create nothing less than “the most beautiful office building in the world,” according to the Chicago Architecture Center website (www.architecture.org). The Tribune announced the competition on its 75th anniversary in 1922, with $100,000 in prize money, including $50,000 to the winner. One of the largest and most important architectural competitions in American history, it drew 260 entries from 23 nations. Although some architects conjured artful designs ranging from a Doric column to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, winners Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells of New York delivered a design that filled the space with the maximum rentable office space. Their Gothic Revival design combined a lower office block contemporary to the period while the building’s crown imitated the Butter Tower of the 13th century medieval Rouen Cathedral in France. In what amounts to “a cathedral for journalism,” the building’s façade incorporates fragments from some of the world’s most historically important buildings (the Great Pyramid at Giza, Westminster Abbey, the Taj Mahal and more), brought home by the Tribune’s foreign correspondents at Col. McCormick’s request. The lobby features famous quotations on freedom of the press from Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Wrigley sponsored two other improvements to the river intersection: the Bedford stone commemorative sculptures on the bridge tenders’ houses on the north side of the river. James Earle Fraser’s “The Discoverers” depicts Father Jacques Marquette and explorer Louis Jolliet, the first Europeans to travel the Chicago River, as well as the Native Americans of the region; Fraser’s “The Pioneers” shows Chicago settlers. On the southern bridge tenders’ houses, the Ferguson Fund, established to provide public sculpture, paid for Henry Hering’s depictions of the rebuilding after the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the Battle of Fort Dearborn, which had been located at that spot. Wrigley was also a sportsman, who used bowling and semi-professional baseball to advertise his chewing gum. As an offshoot, he invested in the Chicago Cubs in 1916 and became majority stockholder four years later. In 1917, he was appointed to the Lincoln Park Commission in charge of Oak Street Beach, at the north end of what would become Michigan Avenue and the “Magnificent Mile.” Lincoln Park began in 1860 as a portion of the city cemetery designated as parkland: from what is now North Avenue to Diversey Parkway, with a provision to extend Lake Shore Drive south to Oak Street, according to the Chicago Park District website. In 1870, in response to storms and erosion, the commission had built a breakwater of pilings, stone and brush between Oak Street and North Avenue. However, this breakwater inadequately protected Lake Shore Drive, which had opened in 1875, so the Army Corps of Engineers built a breakwall between Fullerton and North Avenues in the late 1880s. Meanwhile, shoreline owners south of Lincoln Park asked the commission to extend Lake Shore Drive south from Oak Street to Ohio Street and they gave up their riparian, or shoreline land-use rights, to help pay for the landfill extension. The 1890s project included a 50-foot wide roadway, stone sidewalks, bicycle path, bridle path and a small sand beach at Oak Street. In 1899, the completion of the Chicago Drainage Canal meant that sewage was no longer dumped into Lake Michigan, which made it more attractive for swimmers. (The Chicago Drainage Canal, later renamed the Sanitary & Ship Canal, replaced the Illinois & Michigan Canal, see bridge story page 9). Oak Street Beach had become popular by 1910, despite its small size. Surrounding mansion owners complained about the large numbers of bathers and the Lincoln Park Com-
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mission in 1917 limited the hours it was open to the public, to much protest. During hot summer days, the beach attracted as many as 55,000 bathers. It was a place to see and be seen. In 1934, soon after the formation of the Chicago Park District, federal funds also became available through the Works Progress Administration for improvements such as a tunnel underneath Michigan Avenue to Oak Street Beach and a comfort station. In the 1960s, shipments of sand from the Indiana Dunes augmented the beach. The area around Oak Street Beach had seen development prior to 1920, thanks to hotel owner Potter Palmer and architect/developer Benjamin Marshall. In 1882, Potter Palmer had built a castle home for himself at what is now 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive. Marshall built 999 N. Lake Shore Drive, at the curve of Oak Street and the Drive, in 1911-12; the Stewart Apartments at 1200 N. Lake Shore Drive in 1912 and then 199 E. Lake Shore Drive in 1912-13, followed by 209 E. Lake Shore Drive and the Drake Hotel in 1920. Raised within a wealthy Hyde Park family, Marshall was inspired to become an architect by the 1893 World’s Fair, said Brandon Womack, historian of the Benjamin Marshall Society. “He fully subscribed to the City Beautiful movement and its philosophies: orderly, beautiful, planned, with architecture that was inspiring.” He promoted the urban lakefront as a place for suburbanites accustomed to mansions and accordingly offered single-floor apartments with the same mix of rooms for specific functions: libraries, dining, orangeries, billiards. Tribune Tower with the InterContinental Hotel behind it (Anne Evans, courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Center). Bathers gather at Oak Street Beach near the Drake Hotel in the 1920s (courtesy of the Drake Hotel). 333 N. Michigan Ave. (Eric Allix Rogers, courtesy of the Chicago Architecture Center).
333 N.N.Michigan 333 MichiganAve. Ave.
Located on the south bank of the Chicago River, 333 N. Michigan Ave. was built in 1928 in the Art Deco setback style by the architectural firm of Holabird & Root. Its façade features reliefs depicting Native Americans and soldiers at Fort Dearborn, which partially occupied this spot in the early 1800s. Its unique site fronts 200 feet on Michigan Avenue – with a midblock entrance -- and 60 feet along the river and Wacker Drive. Because of a bend in the river, 333 is visible for the length of the Magnificent Mile to the north. Sentinel figures on its roof stare down at passersby while intricate metalwork of the Roman god Neptune picks up on the nautical theme of the building’s porthole windows. In the days when its members included Frank Lloyd Wright, Mayor Richard J. Daley, Carl Sandburg and William Wrigley, the Tavern Club featured an ice skating rink on its 26th floor terrace. Following a $75 million renovation, the Tavern Club at 333 offers a restaurant, bar and private events space.
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Marshall partnered with the brothers John and Tracy Drake in building the hotel at the north end of Michigan Avenue, overlooking Oak Street Beach. He created a city within a city; the ground floor arcade had all the shops you would find on an old-fashioned Main Street: shoeshine, clothing, jewelry, barber, florist. “The idea was to refresh yourself,” Womack said. It was a concept Marshall repeated at the Blackstone and Edgewater Beach Hotels, which was supposed to have a long arcade adjacent to a golf course – and seaplane transportation from downtown. A Gatsby-esque personality, Marshall drew from his travels and studies to design whatever fit the need for beauty at the time, Womack said. The Drake, in the Italian Renaissance style with elements of Art Deco, opened on New Year’s Eve 1920 to 2,000 of Chicago’s elite and “it remained high-society’s opulent first choice during the Roaring 20s,” according to the hotel’s website. Well into the 1930s guests at the urban resort like Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, George Gershwin and Charles Lindbergh could be seen sipping a cocktail and listening to Herbie Kay in its Gold Coast Room. In 1980 Hilton International acquired The Drake Hotel and restored it. In 2016, it became one of just 260 Historic Hotels of America as designated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Other notable Michigan Avenue buildings from this period include the Warwick Allerton Hotel Chicago, the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile and the Palmolive Building.
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Opened in 1924 as a residential hotel for single men moving into the city for white collar jobs, the Allerton was built to be seen from all sides, and in dark red brick to match the neighborhood rowhouses. In addition to private rooms, it featured a grille, libraries and lounges, a barbershop, miniature golf course and gymnasium with squash court. The 42-story InterContinental opened in 1929 as the Medinah Athletic Club, with a 14th story Olympic pool – the first built above ground in a skyscraper. Befitting its original Masonic clientele, its architecture includes Assyrian style relief carvings on its eighth floor façade, three Sumerian warriors on its 12th floor setback above the entrance, and a golden Moorish dome. It is also an Historic Hotel of America. Built for one of the world’s leading soap manufacturers between 1927 and 1929, the Palmolive Building was the first commercial skyscraper far from the Loop: at the north end of Michigan Avenue. Designed by Holabird & Root, which also did the Board of Trade, it uses the Art Deco “set-back” style influenced by municipal zoning laws. A navigational beacon named after aviator Charles Lindbergh that operated atop the building from 1930 to 1981 was restored in 2007. The building also was known as the Playboy Building when it served as the headquarters for the magazine founded by Hugh Hefner from 1967 to 1989. Since 2000 it has been condominiums.
Left: The Drake Hotel when it was first completed and how it looks today, with the Palmolive and Hancock buildings behind it. (both photos courtesy of the Drake / Hilton Hotels). Below: The Hancock being built in 1967 (coutesy of the Magnificent Mile Association). Right: The Starbucks Reserve Roastery (Dave Hamilton photo).
The Great Depression that began in 1929 “brought the dreams of a great avenue to a halt,” according to the website of the Magnificent Mile Association. It wasn’t until 1947, after World War II, that developer Arthur Rubloff launched a rebranding plan and coined the phrase, “the Magnificent Mile” for the avenue between the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The 100-story John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Ave. was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1970. Commissioned by its namesake insurance company, the slope-sided building featured residential units above commercial ones. Water Tower Place, the nation’s first vertical mall, followed in 1975, with a mixture of retail, dining, entertainment, hotel and residential uses. Water Tower Place was built with setbacks to allow light onto Michigan Avenue. However, the editor of ChicagoArchitecture.org groused in a Nov. 15, 2012 blog that the Hancock was “a bad seed” that had led to canyonization of Michigan Avenue. As a result, the nickname “Boul Mich” – a reference to the low-rise shopping streets of Paris – no longer fit. Michigan Avenue was now entering a new age, “transforming once again into a showcase of modern architecture.” According to the Magnificent Mile Association, the boulevard’s second building boom, from 1988 to 2001, produced 900 N. Michigan, Chicago Place (700 N. Michigan), the Crate & Barrel building that is now home to Starbucks Roastery - the world’s largest - and the North Bridge Mall. Meanwhile, Trump International Hotel & Tower opened in 2009. And in 1992, the BMO Harris Magnificent Mile Lights Fest got its start as a motorcade, perhaps a throwback to the small Italian lights that Saks Fifth Avenue had placed in its Erie Street elm trees in 1959. Today the two-day weekend festival starts the holiday season with activities, a parade -- and fireworks over the Chicago River.
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The Three Arts Club Building (now home to Restoration Hardware) on the corner of Goethe and Dearborn (Brian Kade photo). Bughouse Square debates featuring Studs Terkel (above) and Kelly Underman (both photos provided by the Newberry Library). The entrance to the Dil Picke Club (Newberry Library photo).
TowerTown: TowerTown The Bohemian Community
West of Michigan Avenue, the bohemian arts and gay community known as Towertown was in full swing in 1920. The art colony began after the World’s Fair of 1893, when Judge Lambert Tree and his wife Anna built the Tree Studios at Ohio and State Streets to encourage European artists to stay. Its epicenter, however, was the area around the historic Water Tower at Chicago and Michigan Avenues, where bookstores, tearooms, coffeehouses, cheap cafeterias and lunchrooms, art suppliers and used furniture stores sprang up to serve struggling artists, writers, students and hangers-on. They were drawn to the area by cheap housing in old subdivided mansions, walkup apartment houses and former stables. Bordered by the Gold Coast on the east and Little Italy on the west, Towertown’s major streets were Wabash Avenue and Ohio, Erie, Huron, Superior, Chestnut and State Streets, but some people lived as far west as LaSalle Street, Chicago Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp noted in 1988. Its most famous coffeehouse was the Dil Pickle Club, whose entrance above 10 Tooker Place, an alley east of Dearborn Street, was marked with a “DANGER” sign that pointed to the orange main door lit by a green light. On the door was a sign: “Step High, Stoop Low and Leave Your Dignity Outside” and inside, another sign read, “Elevate Your Mind to a Lower Level of Thinking.” Drinks and sandwiches were available and attendees decorated the room themselves with art exhibitions. Sometimes they took their radical discussions on contemporary issues to public debates at nearby Washington Square Park (aka “Bughouse Square,”) where they stood on soapboxes to be seen by their neighbors – a tradition preserved by the Newberry Library each summer.
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Arts and the anything-goes discussion facilitated an atmosphere of sexual permissiveness that drew unmarried heterosexuals and Chicago homosexuals of both sexes, who first found a sense of community in Towertown. There were also hangers-on and naïve voyeurs, who sometimes got themselves into trouble, Gapp noted. Perhaps the desire to shelter young single women moving to the city from small towns from such temptations inspired the myriad dormitory-style buildings for women on Dearborn Street such as the Three Arts Club (now the home of Restoration Hardware). But Chicago’s literary renaissance was also nurtured in Towertown, with people like Harriet Monroe, who gained fame after her “Columbian Ode” dedicated the world’s fair of 1893. Monroe founded Poetry Magazine from an office located at 543 Cass Avenue (now Wabash Avenue) and is credited with discovering Carl Sandburg at about the time he was writing about the “city of the big shoulders.” She also published work by T. S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats and Ezra Pound. The neighborhood’s vitality was a uniquely urban asset that contributed to not only literature but theatre and music, Gapp said. But rising rents led to its decline by the late 1920s, even though wisps remained into the 1970s. The loss of urban bohemias like Towertown, mean that creative thinkers come not from the grassroots but from academia, he wrote, paraphrasing from Russell Jacoby’s “The Last Intellectuals.” “They talk to each other in the incomprehensible language of pedants instead of addressing large segments of the public, as they once did in the old days.”
Streeterville: Streeterville From squatter community to priciest real estate
Before the opening of the Michigan Avenue Bridge, warehouses filled the area to the east, close to where the Chicago River emptied into Lake Michigan, an area known as “The Sands.” During a storm in 1886, “Capt.” George Wellington Streeter (1837-1921) grounded his ship, The Reutan, on the Sands, at about what is now Chicago Avenue and Fairbanks, and set off a 30-year battle over what would become some of the city’s most valuable lakefront property. The longer Wellington was unable to move The Reutan, the more sediment filled in around the ship, until it rested on the mainland. Streeter filed a claim for the land as an annexation, based on an 1821 survey that showed the Lake Michigan shoreline to be farther west,
according to Emmett Dedmon in “Fabulous Chicago.” He also used squatter’s rights and a document allegedly signed by President Grover Cleveland, according to a 1988 Chicago Tribune story. Streeter argued he was creating more land, and that he had federal, rather than Illinois, jurisdiction. “Streeter’s brashness endeared him to local newspapers, which delighted in reporting on his ‘Deestric of Lake Michigan,’” according to the online Encyclopedia of Chicago. He also encouraged builders to dump their rubble into his landfill and he sold parcels to gullible buyers. In 1899, after litigation in which he challenged powerful Chicagoans such as Potter Palmer and N.K. Fairbank, he was captured by police, but escaped when his wife, Maria, threw a kettle of boiling water at them. Another time he enlisted an army of hoboes and squatters armed with rocks, clubs and just a few rifles. He served time in the Joliet penitentiary after killing a night watchman for allegedly trespassing but returned afterward to his lakefront shanty. Only after Streeter began a brisk business in beer and whiskey – in defiance of Chicago Sunday closing laws – did Mayor William “Big Bill” Thompson go after him in 1918. Streeter broke down a fence police erected to keep him out, after which they burned down his shack. He died of pneumonia a few years later at age 84. In 1924, Maria also having died, his second wife Elma filed a claim for $1 billion against 1,500 lakefront property owners. She died in 1936 and the last claim by Streeter heirs was dismissed in federal court in 1940. Nevertheless, the lakefront neighborhood east of Michigan Avenue between the Chicago River and Oak Street is known as Streeterville.
Captain and Ma Streeter (Library of Congress photo). A Captain Streeter Memorial statue located at the corner of McClurg Court and Grand Avenue (Magnificent Mile Association photo). The Streeterville neighborhood in 1937, bordered by Lake Michigan on the east and north, the Chicago River on the south, and Michigan Avenue on the west. (Library of Congress photo).
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Streetwise 4/13/20 Crossword To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the Sudoku numbers 1 to 9. ©2020 PuzzleJunction.com
Tooted 37 Small Cigarette’s end amphibians Toy dogs 38 Medicinal Shack amount Paradise lost 40 Implied W.W. II turning 41 Like Darth point Vader 18 Foul mood 44 Pantheon 22 Legendary member creatures of the 46 Bullfighters Himalayas 48 Typos 25 Mexican snack 49 Llama land 27 Strong and wn 50 Poke fun at Certain colonist healthy 51 Vittles 28 Schools of Rocky peaks 53 Key material Like an oxeye thought 54 Spill the beans 29 “Hud” Oscar window 56 Chinese nurse Capital of winner 58 Big tippler Nicaragua 30 Front burner 59 Social rebuff items Sports figures 61 Rodent 32 Postpone Varnish 63 Life story, in ingredientCopyright 35 ©2020 Barley PuzzleJunction.com bristle brief Chooses 36 Three (It.) 64 Pothook shape Reid of “American Pie” Pub orders Retreat Tympan Like some salts Spot ___ probandi Vanquish Sailor’s cry Wails
8 9 10 11 12 15
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Sudoku Solution Last Week’s Puzzle Answers
Solution
Sudoku Solution
Find your nearest StreetWise Vendor at www.streetwise.org
Crossword
Across 1 Transient 5 Square dance group, e.g. 10 Highway exit 14 Son of Isaac 15 Scold 16 Pelee Island’s lake 17 Hopped off 18 Gripper 19 Mexican snack 20 Attendance check 22 City-like 23 Sound on Old MacDonald’s farm 24 Combustible heap 26 Rudely push 28 Backslide 32 Uniform shade ©2020 PuzzleJunction.com 33 Kind of team 11 Kaffiyeh 61 Partner of void 35 As required wearer 62 Eye amorously 36 Keen 12 Popular 63 Waikiki perception insulator welcome 37 Terse 13 Unskilled 64 Wax-coated 40 Lobster eggs cheese laborer 41 TV award 21 Kind of 65 Penury 43 Chef engineer 66 Irritable 44 S shaped 67 Animal shelters 22 Dot-com’s moldings address 46 Maseru locale 24 Practical joke Down 48 Department 25 Abominable 1 Get wind of store aim Snowman 2 Capital on a 49 Like a 26 Embarrassment fjord billionaire’s 3 Arrestee’s hope 27 Injures pockets 4 Point of view 29 Blender button 50 Make smooth 30 Tart fruits 5 Station 51 Flood identification? 31 Regards embankment 32 Ship part 6 Tailor’s marker 54 From here to 7 Cash drawer 33 Inside info there 34 Go a-courting 8 Tokyo, once 58 Hollywood 9 Half a score 38 Result of favorite overexercise 10 Unoriginal work 59 Guffaw
39 Seashore 42 Warbled in the Alps 45 Harvested 47 Casual attire 48 Walk nonchalantly 50 Black billiard ball 51 Rear half of a griffin 52 Drop-off spot 53 Mouselike animal 54 Couples 55 Classic art subject 56 Tartan sporters 57 Stately trees 59 High school subj. 60 Schooner’s cargo
How StreetWise Works
Our Mission
Orientation Participants complete a monthlong orientation, focusing on customer service skills, financial literacy and time management to become a badged vendor.
Financial Literacy Vendors buy StreetWise for $0.90, and sell it for $2. The profit of $1.10 goes directly to the licensed vendor for them to earn a living.
Supportive Services StreetWise provides referrals, advocacy and other support to assist participants in meeting their basic needs and getting out of crisis.
S.T.E.P. Program StreetWise’s S.T.E.P. Program provides job readiness training and ongoing direct service support to ensure participants’ success in entering the traditional workforce.
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THE PLAYGROUND
To empower the entrepreneurial spirit through the dignity of self-employment by providing Chicagoans facing homelessness with a combination of supportive social services, workforce development resources and immediate access to gainful employment.
Puzzle
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PREV
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WISE
THE CHICAGO PREMIERE
THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF
MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON James Ijames Directed by Whitney White By
The recently widowed “Mother of America”—attended to by the very enslaved people who will be free the moment she dies—takes us deep into the ugly and thorny ramifications of America’s original sin.
RADICALLY VULNERABLE, OUTRAGEOUSLY HILARIOUS
APRIL 2 – MAY 17 | steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650 MAJOR PRODUCTION SPONSOR
2019/20 GRAND BENEFACTORS
2019/20 BENEFACTORS
