Polly #2 Explored the Windy City~Chicago, Illinois!

The Willis Tower was completed May 3, 1973, and was originally known as the Sears Tower. It is 1,450 feet high and is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the Chicago skyline and in the world. It held the record for the world’s tallest building for 25 years until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia were built in 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agora is the name of a group of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures at the south end of Grant Park in Chicago. The sculptures were designed by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, and were made in a foundry near Poznan between 2004 and 2006.

The figures are 9 ft tall and weigh about 1,800 pounds. According to wikipedia, each is made from a hollow, seamless piece of iron that has been allowed to rust, creating a reddish appearance and a bark-like texture. The figures appear to be milling about in a crowd; some face each other, while others look away. Visitors are meant to walk through the sculptures and contemplate the work.

The name Agora refers to the meeting places of the Ancient Greek city-states. Abakanowicz, who grew up during World War II, has said that her art draws on her fear of crowds, which she once described as “brainless organisms acting on command, worshiping on command and hating on command”. However, the work has inspired optimistic interpretations. Kevin Nance of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “If they had arms and hands (they don’t), these would be clasped behind their backs as if in contemplation. They seem, somehow, to be thinking, not as a group but as individuals. […] It’s possible, in fact, to interpret the piece as a representation of democracy.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buckingham Fountain is one of the largest fountains in the world. It’s located in Grant Park, and is one of Chicago’s most popular landmarks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Crown Fountain is located in Millennium Park and was designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa and inspired by the people of Chicago. The fountain consists of two 50 foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool, and they project video images from a broad social spectrum of Chicago citizens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I saw this brick on the Tribune Tower in Chicago, and I just had to take a picture! According to wikipedia,, prior to the building of the Tribune Tower, correspondents for the Chicago Tribune brought back rocks and bricks from a variety of historically important sites throughout the world at the request of Colonel McCormick. Many of these reliefs have been incorporated into the lowest levels of the building and are labeled with their location of origin. Stones included in the wall are from such sites as the Trondheim Cathedral, Taj Mahal, Clementine Hall, the Parthenon, Hagia Sophia, Corregidor Island, Palace of Westminster, petrified wood from the Redwood National and State Parks, the Great Pyramid, The Alamo, Notre-Dame, Abraham Lincoln’s Tomb, the Great Wall of China, Independence Hall, Fort Santiago, the Berlin Wall, Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Banteay Srei among others. Some of these had a political or social context such as the column fragment of Wawel Castle located in its own niche over the upper-left corner of the main entrance, as a visual tribute to Chicago’s large Polish populace, the largest such presence outside of the Republic of Poland. In all, there are 136 fragments in the building. More recently a rock returned from the moon was displayed in a window in the Tribune gift store (it could not be added to the wall as NASA owns all moon rocks, and it is merely on loan to the Tribune), and a piece of steel recovered from the World Trade Center has been added to the wall.

Cloud Gate is located in Millennium Park in Chicago, and is nicknamed “The Bean”, because of it’s bean like shape. According to Wikipedia, it’s said to have been inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture’s surface reflects and distorts the city’s skyline. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the “omphalos” (Greek for “navel”), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor’s artistic themes, and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties.

 

 

 

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