U.S. City of the Year: Chicago

By: Alex KotlowitzFri May 9, 2008 at 5:09 PM

Chicago Sun Time: In front of Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate in Millennium Park | photo illustration by Peter Funch

Skyscrapers, green roofs, and house music -- a very American metropolis.

Feast on This: Historian Tim Samuelson lunches at the Carson Pirie Scott building. | photograph by Saverio Truglia

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Well, Samuelson begins to lecture those out-of-towners. He tells them how Chicago rose out of a mud hole, how after the great fire of 1871, many thought that was the end for the city, and then how the nation's first skyscrapers rose, monuments reaching to the heavens. He recounts how in 1933, amid the Depression, the indefatigable city decided to get people to work and to provide a diversion from the hard times -- and so built one of the all-time great World's Fairs, themed the Century of Progress. And then Samuelson asks his travelers, "For God's sake, why don't you give us something tough to do?"

Samuelson, you might think, is stuck in the past. But he understands well how history informs not only the present but also all that lies ahead. He recently met me in the entranceway of the 104-year-old, 12-story Carson Pirie Scott department store, one of architect Louis Sullivan's masterpieces. He directed my attention to the thick columns, topped by intricately ornamental capitals, which have the effect of flowers in full bloom. Samuelson noticed my awe and later told me that he was only 7 when he first saw the building, and he was mesmerized too. "With all these exotic forms just swirling all over," he said, "it seemed alive."

Sullivan, of course, helped lay the foundation for American modern architecture and did it here because there was no one to tell him to do it any differently. Samuelson is a Sullivan connoisseur. He's working on an exhibit -- along with graphic novelist Chris Ware -- to celebrate Sullivan's philosophy that buildings should be organic to their creators and to their place and time. He's here today to consult with the architects who are restoring the building, a process that will take longer than its construction did.

For years, the city stood by as architectural masterpieces -- among them, Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange -- were razed. But in part because of Samuelson's protestations, there has been renewed interest in preserving and rejuvenating what's left. In a rough section on the city's west side, for instance, sits the Garfield Park Conservatory, a cavernous 4.5-acre greenhouse with lagoons and waterfalls, designed by the landscaper Jens Jensen. It had fallen into disrepair. Pipes had burst; windows had cracked. Then in 1994, the city began to revitalize it. In 2001, the Conservatory mounted a magical exhibition in which the artist Dale Chihuly planted glass flowers and lily pads among the nonglass trees and plants. It drew more than 500,000 people -- and signified the city's reconnection to a secret about hard-nosed Chicagoans: We're a bunch of tree huggers. Just consider the motto on the city's seal, URBS IN HORTO, or City in a Garden.

While the rest of the world contemplated global warming, the city revived that hothouse and planted trees along its streets and boulevards. Freeman maples. Bald cypresses. Kentucky coffee trees. Half a million altogether. At first, it was because the mayor wanted to doll up the city. But Chicago is ever practical, and there was the realization that this prettifying might serve a purpose. Thus began the greening of Chicago. Almost by accident.

City Hall now has on its roof a garden that boasts more than 100 plant species and that produces enough honey (500 pounds last year) to sell commercially. One day last summer, scientists measured the temperature on that green roof: It was 70 degrees, compared to a bubbling 152 degrees on the blacktop roof of the county building next door. Chicago has more than 80 acres of green roofs. Its 2,000 miles of alleys are being repaved with a permeable substance that will divert rainwater to Lake Michigan. And if you agree to build green, you can get an expedited building permit (three weeks, as opposed to what one architect told me is often six months), which gives new meaning to all things green making this city work.

When word got out in City Hall that Fast Company had selected Chicago as city of the year, I got a phone call from the mayor, Richard M. Daley (it does sometimes feel like a small town), son of kingmaker Richard J. Daley. The Daleys have ruled this city for 40 of the past 53 years. The mayor told me that at the annual mayors' conference, other mayors grill him to learn what the city's doing with its greening. "That's all they want to talk about," he said. He spoke proudly of an eco-friendly SRO designed by Helmut Jahn that, among other things, collects rainwater to flush the toilets. Another renowned architect, Stanley Tigerman, designed the new Pacific Garden Mission, a refuge for the homeless (1,000 at a time) that has greenhouses where they compost. The mayor, a regular biker, is considering a program he saw in Paris: the creation of a public fleet of bikes. Now, that would be a test for Chicago.

From Issue 126 | June 2008

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Recent Comments | 20 Total

May 21, 2008 at 7:53am by Mark Zorro

What gravitates me today is not delving into what people read, nor no longer trying to simply figure out why I personally write what it is I write, but what I am looking for are those articles that get me traveling and finding based on a writers experience rather than a laundry list of go to sites, this one hit the "bulls-eye" in that regard, which is quite apt if we are talking about Chicago. By the time I finished fishing this article, I found out that the neon-strip tunnel at O'Hare airport was designed by Helmat Jahn and that the BCE building I have often starred at in arched wonder is designed by Santiago Calatrava. This article took me to new sources of music such as Lupe Fiasco, Wilco and Neko Case. I actually loved the melodic tone of HOLD ON HOLD ON, a song featured on Neko Case's website. The most fascinating character mentioned in the piece is Studs Terkel, his site at studsterkel.org, which is chock full of interesting interviews. I found it interesting that Stanley Tigerman opened up an alternative design school called ARCHEWORKS. Beyond the architects and the musicians, I discovered how little I knew about trees and that itself opens up an interesting pathway of inquiry but what this article did most was to open my eyes up to see Chicago in a new light, to go beyond the beef and the politics and begin to notice a city that I have worked in but have never done the justice of taking the time to notice it or even try to "visit it". It is not so much that Hillary Clinton once did a thesis on Saul Alinksy because that takes me back into Chicago politics that I have learned not to trust, but this article connected me to an authenticity and realistic attitude of Chicago that I have utterly failed to connect with. So I am finding that the best stuff in a great article does not come to light until we shift the focus of our own attention makeup. This is more the reason why commentary simply sucks up my time and stops me from the real juice here, which is starting to look at my world in a new way and begin to extract rather than simply accumulate. The way Alex Kowlowitz wrote this up is very helpful in that regard. What Alex did here is open up a Chicago that I have been so lazy minded to see before, yet I know it is city that should command my attention as well as it turns out, my respect, but now thanks to this article, it does.......M.

U.S. City of the Year: Chicago

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