Firewood Mountain, and other Scenes from a Saturday walk through Chicago's Near Northwest side

Subway Aurora Borealis

Chinese Finger Trap, Claes Oldenberg style
(click images for larger view)

Goose Island geese

Submerged dock (more geese)

Blue Factory on North Dayton

Chicago Firewood on Halsted

 

Kendall College vegetable garden bunny

A Special Tour with the Architects Redesigning the Chicago River; scenes from river via Chicago Water Taxi from Goose Island

click images for larger view

If you want an expertly guided water tour of Chicago architecture, go with the Chicago Architecture Foundation's  First Lady, which docks along the south bank riverwalk just east of the Michigan Avenue bridge.

And next Thursday, September 12th, you have a rare opportunity to take the boat tour with the very people who are designing the Chicago river's future: CDOT's Michelle Woods, Carol Ross Barney, Gina Ford of Sasaski Associates, the team working on the new riverwalk, Tom Kerwin of bKL, about to break ground on their Wolf Point apartment tower, and Claire Cahan of Studio Gang, whose Clark Park boathouse is scheduled to debut in October.  More info here.

But if you're one of those people who also like to explore on your own, there's no better way than the distinctive yellow boats of Chicago Water Taxi, which will take you from Michigan Avenue all the way to Ping Tom Park in Chinatown.  And, as we wrote last June when we took one of the inaugural runs, there's now also a new route that takes you north on the river all the way to the Cherry Avenue Bridge, the gateway between North Avenue and Goose Island.

As hard as it may be to believe, summer has already drawn to a close, and you have only another couple weeks to take the Water Taxi between the Daily News Building dock at Madison to/from Goose Island, before the route shuts down for the season.

As we mentioned before, the great thing about this run is how it gives you a visual counterpoint between vestiges of the old industrial city and the newer, more ordered mixed-use city that's fast replacing it.  Following the links are a few photos of some of the sights you'll encounter, taken this afternoon, on a exceptionally blue-skied, bright day that made even the old Morton Salt/General Growth building look crisp and fresh.

Read More:

Hour of the Goose: New Water Taxi run offers fresh Architectural Portrait of the City.

Hour of the Wolf:  The Transformation of the Pivot Point of Chicago

 Finishing the Riverwalk

Studio/Gang's Clark Park Boathouse:  A Century of Urban Transformation flowing down Chicago's River.

And now, Scenes from a Early Fall Afternoon Cruise from Goose Island . . .

more after the break . . .

Hour of the Goose: New Water Taxi run offers fresh Architectural Portrait of the City

click images for larger view (strongly recommended)

The line has been crossed.  Can there be any turning back?

Since the Wendella line - started with a single wooden boat reconstructed by Swedish immigrant Albert Borgstrom back in 1935 - first began offering commuter service along the Chicago river in 1962, the city north of Illinois Street has been like the world before Columbus - to cross it would be to fall off the edge.

As of now, however, it's a  (Brave) New World.   Last week, a boatload of guests including Blackhawk mascot Tommy Hawk and Chicago alderman Ed Burke, who immediately pocketed a fiver from Tommy for getting the property taxes on his aerie cut in half, boarded one of Wendella's distinctive yellow Water Taxis on the inaugural run of a new service from the Ogilvie Station to the tip of Goose Island . . .

No, not that Goose Island.  The big one, just south of North Avenue, where Wendella has built a shiny new dock.  According to a story by Paul Biasco of DNAinfo.Chicago, the genesis for the service came from being approached by the Wrigley Company, which was transferring the last of the employees, many of whom had been regular Water Taxi passengers, from the namesake Michigan Avenue Building that had been the corporation's home since the 1920s to the Global Innovation Center it had opened on Goose Island in 2005.

The run takes about 22 minutes, with a basic one-way fare of $4.00, a 10-trip ticket for $24.00, and an unlimited monthly pass for $60.00.  The RTA has added Wendella to its Transit Benefit Fare Program, which allows commuters to pay for trips with pre-tax payroll deductions.  The initial schedule is seven runs each direction every weekday.  When I took a test ride on Wednesday, I think I was the only passenger.  What makes it a bit more complicated is that since the North Avenue dock requires boarding from the upper level, Wendella has to use its largest, two decker boats for the service, no matter how sparse the usage.

No doubt ridership will build.  The dock location is adjacent not only to Goose Island, but to the still expanding North and Halsted retail and residential corridor, and less than a mile to Wicker Park and Bucktown to the West.

Quite apart from the utilitarian aspects, the new Water Taxi run is a great way to see the city and the way the river binds together old industry on its west bank and gentrifying residential on the east.  Here are some of the highlights . . .

click images for larger view - seriously, it's recommended

Left: Fulton House Cold Storage 1898 Frank B. Abbot; remodeled as Fulton House condos, Harry Weese 1979 - 1981; Right: Chicago and Northwestern Railroad (Carroll Street) Bridge.

Harry Weese River Cottages

 

 Erie on the Park, 2002, Lucien Lagrange (right) and A. Montgomery Ward Park, Wolff Landscape Architects and Peter Walker and Partners

Chicago Avenue Bridge, 1914,

Montgomery Ward and Company Catalog Warehouse,  1907-1907 Schmidt Martin and Garden; restoration, Klein and Hoffman

bargeful of sand, provenance unknown

Prairie Materials Silos

Windy City Yacht Brokerage

 

I have absolutely no idea what this is.  If you do, let me know.

Division Street Bridge,  Thomas G. Pihlfeldt and John E. Ericson, Dept of Public Works  1903.  Why is it pink?  Once again, I have no idea.  If you do, let us know.

Morton Salt Distribution Facility

North Avenue Bridge, 2008, Muller+Muller

Wrigley Global Innovation Center, 2005, HOK

 

Cherry Avenue Bridge
renovated
Can you get hit by a train while biking across the Cherry Avenue Bridge?

Goose Island for Obscura Day, Kalmbach's Grand Mansions, Buckley's Utopie, Doug Garofalo memorial - still more in April

We don't usually include tours on our calendar because there are just so damn many of them, but we did one to mention two:

Next Saturday, April 28th, is Obscura Day "an international celebration of unusual places" and Forgotten Chicago is offering a walking tour of Goose Island and Pulaski Park from 12:00 p.m to 2:30.

Goose Island is one of the more obscure areas of Chicago. Primarily industrial, it once contained a working class Irish residential enclave as well. We’ll discuss the history of much of the island, and examine remnants from its manufacturing and residential past.

We’ll also venture off the island to tour the once working-class neighborhood surrounding Pulaski Park. The area is dense with mixed architectural uses and history. Additionally, it has been shaped by various political forces over the years, from Progressive Era reformers to less-than-progressive machine politicians. We’ll check out some of the tangible physical evidence that reflects the area’s political history, and architectural oddities and other curiosities in the built environment.

The cost is $12.00, and with a limit of 35 participants, I'd expect it will fill up.  Get information and buy tickets here.

Then in May, architectural historian Sally Kalmbach will be offering From Grand Mansions to Luxury Apartment Buildings, The Story of the changing skyline of Lake Shore Drive, covering both the buildings, residents, and the architects, with an emphasis on Benjamin Marshall.  The tour is being offered Saturday May 19th and Wednesday May 23rd, both times from 10 a.m. until noon.  Cost is $25.00 per person.  For more information and to reserve your place, contact Sally Kalmbach via email.

And just to prove it's never too late to add to the April 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events, on Tuesday April 24th, 6:00 p.m. at the Graham, there's a lecture by Craig Buckley of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture on Utopie: Encounters and Missed Encounters, followed by an open discussion moderated by Sara Knox Hunter.

Elsewhere this week, there's Digital Design at SOM at the Arts Club on Monday the 23rd, Peter Skosey discussing Bus Rapid Transit: Chicago's New Route to Opportunity, CAF lunchtime on Wednesday the 25th, SEAOI's Midwest Bridge Symposium, ULI Chicago's Rebirth of the East Loop and State Street, and Gunny Harboe's tour of Unity Temple, all on Thursday, the 26th.  And on Saturday afternoon, April 28th at the Hyde Park Art Center, there will be a "public memorial celebrating the life and work of visionary architect Doug Garofalo."

Check out the dozen events still to come on the April Calendar.