@chigeek.bsky.social
Architecture geek who also happens to be Louis Sullivan’s number one fan (he’s my dead architect boyfriend).
https://chicagolandarchitecture.substack.com/
https://chicagolandarchitecture.substack.com/
As I promised to share more architectural photos here, this is 77 West Wacker Drive, an early 1990s postmodern design by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. I like the juxtaposition with Helmut Jahn’s Thompson Center. I took this pic exactly 8 yrs ago.
January 3, 2026 at 11:54 PM
As I promised to share more architectural photos here, this is 77 West Wacker Drive, an early 1990s postmodern design by Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura. I like the juxtaposition with Helmut Jahn’s Thompson Center. I took this pic exactly 8 yrs ago.
Someone recently said to me that Harry Weese-designed buildings didn’t give them any feelings. Excuse me? A prison w/windows that look like old computer punchcards is a visual delight! My photo of Weese’s skyscraper prison, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago (1975), taken in Dec. 2015.
January 3, 2026 at 12:44 AM
Someone recently said to me that Harry Weese-designed buildings didn’t give them any feelings. Excuse me? A prison w/windows that look like old computer punchcards is a visual delight! My photo of Weese’s skyscraper prison, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago (1975), taken in Dec. 2015.
Who wants to purchase the top-floor unit in the Keck-Gottschalk-Keck Building (1937) for me? One of the earliest International Style designs built in Chicago, it served as residences for architects Keck & Keck and University of Chicago professor Louis Gottschalk.
www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/5...
www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/5...
5551 S University Ave #3, Chicago, IL 60637 - 3 beds/1.5 baths
(MRED as Distributed by MLS Grid) For Sale: 3 beds, 1.5 baths ∙ 1500 sq. ft. ∙ 5551 S University Ave #3, Chicago, IL 60637 ∙ $410,000 ∙ MLS# 12533218 ∙ A rare opportunity to acquire a light-filled 1,5...
www.redfin.com
January 2, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Who wants to purchase the top-floor unit in the Keck-Gottschalk-Keck Building (1937) for me? One of the earliest International Style designs built in Chicago, it served as residences for architects Keck & Keck and University of Chicago professor Louis Gottschalk.
www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/5...
www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/5...
It was exactly 14 yrs ago today that I went inside the former Anshe Kanesses Israel Synagogue (1913) with @ericallixrogers.com & others, right before its demolition. The structure later became the Friendship Baptist Church where MLK made a speech in 1965. Today the site remains a vacant lot.
January 1, 2026 at 7:52 PM
It was exactly 14 yrs ago today that I went inside the former Anshe Kanesses Israel Synagogue (1913) with @ericallixrogers.com & others, right before its demolition. The structure later became the Friendship Baptist Church where MLK made a speech in 1965. Today the site remains a vacant lot.
At midnight I will be closing all my open tabs and getting ready for a brand new year of tabs that I’ll forget about and never read. Here’s to 2026!
January 1, 2026 at 12:20 AM
At midnight I will be closing all my open tabs and getting ready for a brand new year of tabs that I’ll forget about and never read. Here’s to 2026!
Reading John & Paul by Ian Leslie. Paul makes me tired. In 1966, he's writing timeless songs, going on the last Beatles tour, attending art exhibits & music lectures, sharing a studio w/William Burroughs where they make cut-up techniques. Yet in an interview he says "I only read 20 books this year."
December 31, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reading John & Paul by Ian Leslie. Paul makes me tired. In 1966, he's writing timeless songs, going on the last Beatles tour, attending art exhibits & music lectures, sharing a studio w/William Burroughs where they make cut-up techniques. Yet in an interview he says "I only read 20 books this year."
Going into 2026 feeling and looking like this.
December 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Going into 2026 feeling and looking like this.
Remembering Pops Staples on his birthday today with this photo of The Staple Singers performing songs in front of a giant photo of Carl Sandburg at a folk festival in NYC, July 1965.
December 29, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Remembering Pops Staples on his birthday today with this photo of The Staple Singers performing songs in front of a giant photo of Carl Sandburg at a folk festival in NYC, July 1965.
I don’t know if you had to be there or not, but it was pretty cool being an angry teenager around 1994–95 and screaming, “Make me real, fuck you; make me sick, fuck you,” with your friends while listening to this album together in your parents’ basement. (Sorry if this album is Nirvana-related!)
December 28, 2025 at 12:54 AM
I don’t know if you had to be there or not, but it was pretty cool being an angry teenager around 1994–95 and screaming, “Make me real, fuck you; make me sick, fuck you,” with your friends while listening to this album together in your parents’ basement. (Sorry if this album is Nirvana-related!)
Exactly 10 yrs ago, Christmas Eve 2015. “16 shots and a cover up!” “Rahm must go!” “Carol Marin amazing reporting!”
December 25, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Exactly 10 yrs ago, Christmas Eve 2015. “16 shots and a cover up!” “Rahm must go!” “Carol Marin amazing reporting!”
Happy Brickmas to all my fellow architecture nerds! May all your building wishes come true!!!
December 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Happy Brickmas to all my fellow architecture nerds! May all your building wishes come true!!!
When you find yourself in Aurora, be sure to pay your respects to Goff.
December 24, 2025 at 12:06 AM
When you find yourself in Aurora, be sure to pay your respects to Goff.
I will say this is *NOT* my favorite time of year, but what’s really pushing me over the edge is that every time I look out my window, I see the flashing lights on the Christmas tree inside my neighbor’s unit. There’s also some kind of strobe light on the walls. I feel like I’m gonna have a seizure.
December 22, 2025 at 9:01 PM
I will say this is *NOT* my favorite time of year, but what’s really pushing me over the edge is that every time I look out my window, I see the flashing lights on the Christmas tree inside my neighbor’s unit. There’s also some kind of strobe light on the walls. I feel like I’m gonna have a seizure.
This is the exact same outfit my mom and I wore to my dad’s funeral when I was a kid. Tragic deaths are all about glitz and glamour, don’t ya know.
Couldn’t even wait a year before whipping out the gold sequins
December 21, 2025 at 7:54 PM
This is the exact same outfit my mom and I wore to my dad’s funeral when I was a kid. Tragic deaths are all about glitz and glamour, don’t ya know.
I know it has warmed up but I just saw the most ridiculous-looking person walking down Armitage. They were wearing a pom pom beanie, scarf, long winter coat, and…flip flops.
December 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I know it has warmed up but I just saw the most ridiculous-looking person walking down Armitage. They were wearing a pom pom beanie, scarf, long winter coat, and…flip flops.
The Santa Claus decoration behind Peter Falk’s grandfather character makes The Princess Bride a Christmas movie.
December 20, 2025 at 12:13 AM
The Santa Claus decoration behind Peter Falk’s grandfather character makes The Princess Bride a Christmas movie.
This might seem like a random question but Ashland Avenue ends at 95th Street, right? But then I think that’s not correct after looking at a map and I see there is an Ashland Avenue between 108th Place and Monterey Avenue. I had no idea.
December 18, 2025 at 7:38 PM
This might seem like a random question but Ashland Avenue ends at 95th Street, right? But then I think that’s not correct after looking at a map and I see there is an Ashland Avenue between 108th Place and Monterey Avenue. I had no idea.
This is what I have looked like throughout the entire month of December. If it is still bitterly cold on Christmas Day, I will recreate this photo with my cousin, who eats all the dinner rolls, and my creepy annoying uncle. Happy Holidays!
December 18, 2025 at 6:34 PM
This is what I have looked like throughout the entire month of December. If it is still bitterly cold on Christmas Day, I will recreate this photo with my cousin, who eats all the dinner rolls, and my creepy annoying uncle. Happy Holidays!
It's pretty unsettling to see ICE agents around a public library, a place that provides equal access, safe spaces, and community connections to all people. FYI the Hispanic population in Palatine, IL is about 20%.
December 17, 2025 at 4:55 PM
It's pretty unsettling to see ICE agents around a public library, a place that provides equal access, safe spaces, and community connections to all people. FYI the Hispanic population in Palatine, IL is about 20%.
“The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”
- Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
- Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
December 16, 2025 at 5:52 PM
“The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistencies of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.”
- Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
- Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
Yet they have $60 million to spend on a new basketball & athletics practice facility that no one asked for (besides the fact they have a parking lot on Fullerton). IMO you should not be allowed to demolish multi-unit buildings in a city neighborhood without approval through a public referendum.
DePaul University announced dozens of staff layoffs it says were caused by “financial headwinds” due largely to a “significant” drop in the number of international graduate students enrolling.
DePaul University Lays Off More than 100 Staffers Amid Budget Crunch, Drop in International Students
University President Rob Manuel called the last several weeks “some of the most difficult our community has ever experienced” as he announced that DePaul had laid off 114 of its 1,493 full-time and pa...
news.wttw.com
December 15, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Yet they have $60 million to spend on a new basketball & athletics practice facility that no one asked for (besides the fact they have a parking lot on Fullerton). IMO you should not be allowed to demolish multi-unit buildings in a city neighborhood without approval through a public referendum.
I watched some old episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show yesterday in honor of his 100th birthday. Thanks to him and Carl Reiner for making me laugh more than 60 years later. A day later this upsetting news is the last thing I would have ever expected.
December 15, 2025 at 3:52 AM
I watched some old episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show yesterday in honor of his 100th birthday. Thanks to him and Carl Reiner for making me laugh more than 60 years later. A day later this upsetting news is the last thing I would have ever expected.
According to a poll of 200 civic leaders, these are the 10 GREATEST citizens of Chicago: Jane Addams, Julius Rosenwald, Carl Sandburg, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard J. Daley, Marshall Field, Daniel Burnham, Cyrus McCormick, William Rainey Harper, and Robert McCormick. (Chicago Daily News, March 1968)
December 14, 2025 at 8:18 PM
According to a poll of 200 civic leaders, these are the 10 GREATEST citizens of Chicago: Jane Addams, Julius Rosenwald, Carl Sandburg, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard J. Daley, Marshall Field, Daniel Burnham, Cyrus McCormick, William Rainey Harper, and Robert McCormick. (Chicago Daily News, March 1968)
This is the kind of day to bring back an old post in appreciation of the mechanics behind an architecturally significant building.
At the James Charnley House (1892) Louis Sullivan designed a hot-water radiator system that is still in use 130 yrs later. The radiators are suspended below the floors or inside the walls, concealed behind ornamental grates. #SullivanSunday
December 14, 2025 at 4:50 PM
This is the kind of day to bring back an old post in appreciation of the mechanics behind an architecturally significant building.
Yay I saw a “shorts guy” crossing the street at Division and Hermitage. I was hoping I’d see one today. 🥶
December 13, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Yay I saw a “shorts guy” crossing the street at Division and Hermitage. I was hoping I’d see one today. 🥶