Chicago (2002)

[Neo]

These are some random pics from my collection during my time in Chicago! I'll be going back up to visit in less than a month so stay tuned for a huge Chicago photo tour!

Looking Southeast as seen from my apartment:

Looking South as seen from my apartment:

Michigan Avenue:

Southern tip of Lincoln Park:

The beach:

Nightfall as seen from my balcony:

My bedroom:

Looking west as seen from work:

Don't look down!

Chicago skyline as seen from Shedd Aquarium:

Field Museum (GOOD museum!):

I wanna say this is State Street:

My subway stop at my apartment (1 block):

Snowfall as seen from work:

Look closely, it's the El!

Abraham Lincoln in Grant Park:

Fresh snowfall:

Looking North as seen from work:

Looking Southeast as seen from work:

This is just awesome:

The boat docks:

As seen from the John Hancock Observatory:

My apartment is smack in the middle of this one, 52 stories:

This is the conclusion of this tour. Hope you enjoyed it! Come back now ya hear?

[Allan]

Awesome pics!! You're so lucky...you had great views at work & at your apartment!

[UK_D]

Nice pics! I love stuff like that B)

btw where do you work? The Sears Tower or something? You got one hell of a view.. Im suprised you can actually get on with your work with that distraction lurking outside.

[Neo]

btw where do you work? The Sears Tower or something? You got one hell of a view.. Im suprised you can actually get on with your work with that distraction lurking outside.

Well, it's where I did work. I beat myself everyday for quitting and moving back to Charlotte. If I had it all to do over again I would have stayed in Chicago but for some reason or another my ex wife convinced me to move back to Charlotte so we moved and now we're divorced so you see where it got me, LOL!

I worked for a law firm and those views are from the 72nd and 73rd floor of the AON Center. The building had a total of 80 usable floors and it is the 3rd tallest building in America, 2nd tallest in Chicago so it will give you an idea of how high up it is.

[Urban_Legend]

Those are some awesome pics! Chicago is on my list of places to visit. But I think I'll go there in the summer, cause I hate the cold!

[UK_D]

Yea Im going in the summer too, It'd be nice to relax in the water whilst looking at the skyline, thats something you cant really do in Europe.

Sorry about your wife Neo, although you dont seem to upset lol

Could'nt you ask for a transfer back? I would be furious if I had to leave that behind..

[Neo]

Sorry about your wife Neo, although you dont seem to upset lol

Could'nt you ask for a transfer back? I would be furious if I had to leave that behind..

Yeah, not upset about the ex-wife, LOL! I say good riddens to rubbish!

2 weeks from today I'll be lounging in Chicago and I'll be having dinner with my old boss...we'll see what happens. 8-)

[BrandonTO416]

How did it go? Going back anytime soon?

[Neo]

How did it go? Going back anytime soon?

Well, I'll be staying in Charlotte for the conceivable future, but I do miss the city. I will hopefully be making this an annual trip but won't be going back again this year. Next year may be pushing it as well. I'm hoping to have my fall vacation in Seattle this year and next year my family has planning a trip to London for a week.

[Delta]

Thanks Neo for sharing a little bit of your time in Chicago.

Urrghhhhh! Look at that messy bedroom! Clothes everywhere!! lol

I've always wanted to know what the not-so-very-high tower is with the sloped rhomboid top that is down to the left in the pic captioned 'Don't look down". It is illuminated with neon in your recent Chicago Tour Part 1 night shots Neo. I've seen it so many times now. It's really distinctive.

Also not many citizens of Earth would get the chance to have a view down onto 2 Prudential. What was Aon like to work in on a daily routine Neo?

[Neo]

Delta, the building you're referring to is the Smurfit-Stone Building. It's a beautiful building...very unique indeed.

Messy clothes comes from not spending much time in the apartment but out discovering my new home!!

Here was my daily routine for the most part:

Get out of bed, get ready for work, head towards my floor's elevator. Get off on floor one and say goodbye to the Concierge as he/she opens the door for me to the great outdoors. Head one block towards Chicago (street) and go down the stairs to catch the Red Line subway. Get off the subway at either Lake or Washington (whatever I felt like that day) and walk half a block to Randolph and turn and walk towards the lake until I was met with the powering presence of Aon Center!

Once in AON Center I was greeted in a way much like going through airport security. I flash my employee ID card in front of a reader and continue giving the security my bag (usually carried a backpack) and proceeded through a detector device. Once on the other side I got my bag back and proceeded to my floor's elevator group. They were broken up into several groups as not all elevators stopped on every floor. My elevator group I believe started stopping around 65 or so. I usually had to wait for a few people to get off between that and my floor and was usually packed.

The elevators in AON Center are HUGE! They also have LCD screens in them that have video, current weather, forecasts, news, stocks, etc. Once on my floor (73rd) I proceeded towards the large glass doors engraved with the name of my employer. Once through the doors I was greeted by our receptionist and she would mark me down as coming in and the time (this happened everytime I left and came back in during the day). It's very quiet up there, very eerie. At times you can hear the faint sirens of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, but most of the time it's simply quiet, much like you're out in the middle of nowhere and no one else is around. The view is breathtaking and I feel priveledged to have been able to see what I did up there. It's a view not many people get to see. In fact, I liked the view from the AON Center better than the observation decks in the Sears Tower and the Hancock. Well, that's my day...much of the same leaving...except no security. 8-) Often times I didn't head straight home but went to the lake front to walk around or to the Navy Pier to watch folks pass and the city.

[Delta]

A cool blow-by-blow.

The LCD screens in the elevators I'm sure look great but possibly info overload. I guess a nice distraction in a crowded elevator though.

[Neo]

Indeed an "information overload" for sure. The entire modernized world is quickly becoming information overload, LOL!

[wolfdawg54]

Those are cool shots of Chicago!

[BrandonTO416]

From this vantage point, it looks like your apartment was "only" 52 stories.

[Neo]

From this vantage point, it looks like your apartment was "only" 52 stories.

It's wild! Chicago definately has some massive buildings that dwarf otherwise large and tall buildings.

[josita]

Nice shots -- thank you for them.

I got to say that I love when people finally come around and say that Chicago has the best architecture in the world. The birth of skyscrapers started here -- and we continue to be on the forefront of architectural development.

Let us hope that Trumps new International Tower will live up to beauty, detail, and asethetic of it's surrounding neighbors. It does have a prime (and I mean prime prime prime) location. let us pray...