Soldier Field

With its famous Greek-inspired columns, Soldier Field is well known as the home of the Chicago Bears. It was built from 1924-1928, officially opening on October 9, 1924 as Municipal Grant Park Stadium with 45,000 seats. It was renamed Soldier Field on November 11, 1925. At that time it had permanent seating for 74,280, with room for an additional 30,000 on temporary bleachers. Soldier Field became home to the Bears in September 1971, and at that time had its seating reduced to 58,000, but it has been a multi-purpose stadium throughout its life, being used for many events including high school and college football, some games of the 1994 World Cup series, and concerts featuring Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones. It is pictured here in 2000, before a controversial major renovation project in 2002-2003.

This concludes the original content of my Chicago PLACES page. To see any additional blog entries about Chicago, click on the Chicago label.

Adler Planetarium

The Adler Planetarium was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere when constructed in 1930. It remains the largest museum of astronomical history in the Western Hemisphere. The planetarium was founded by Sears, Roebuck & Co. executive Max Adler.

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Chicago Skyline

Shedd Aquarium Oceanarium

The building on the lake front in the foreground on the left edge of the picture is the Oceanarium of the Shedd Aquarium. The Oceanarium opened in 1991 and contains 3 million gallons of saltwater. The Shedd Aquarium itself opened in 1929, and at the time was the largest aquarium in the world. The Shedd Aquarium is named for John Graves Shedd, who became president of Marshall Field & Co. in 1906. Shedd donated $3.25 million toward the construction of the aquarium, but died in 1926, the year before construction on the aquarium started. The Shedd Aquarium today houses over 6000 sea creatures from more than 750 species, and has its own research vessel, the R/V Coral Reef II.

311 South Wacker Drive

From the left, the first tall building in the skyline is 311 South Wacker Drive. At 65 stories and 961 feet, this is the world's tallest building known only by its street address. It was built in 1990.

Sears Tower

The tallest building in Chicago, in most of the world in fact, is the Sears Tower. At 1,450 feet, the Sears Tower is surpassed only by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which opened in 1996. In fact, the Sears Tower's 108th floor is still the tallest occupied floor in the world. The Sears Tower is located at 233 South Wacker Drive and was completed in 1974.

The Sears Tower was renamed Willis Tower on July 16, 2009. It has since been surpassed in height by, among others, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, now the tallest building in the world, and One World Trade Center in New York City, now the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

AT&T Corporate Center

The building with the two antennas to the right of the Sears Tower is AT&T Corporate Center. Located at 227 West Monroe Street, AT&T Corporate Center is 1,007 feet tall and has 60 floors. It was completed in 1989.

Smurfit-Stone Building

The building with its roof sloping steeply to one corner is the Smufit-Stone Building. It is 575 feet tall and has 41 stories. It was completed in 1983. It is located at 150 North Michigan Avenue.

Two Prudential Plaza

The tall building with the pointed top is Two Prudential Plaza. Located at 180 North Stetson Avenue, Two Prudential Plaza is 995 feet tall and had 64 floors. It was completed in 1990.

Aon Center

Second in height in Chicago at 1136 feet and 83 floors is Aon Center. Recently renamed, at the time these pictures were taken (in 2000) it was called the Amoco Building. When opened in 1973 it was known as the Standard Oil Building. It is located at 200 East Randolph Street.

John Hancock Center

A tall black building with diagonal bracing criss-crossing across its exterior, and topped by two tall red-and-white-striped antennas, John Hancock Center is probably the second most well-known skyscraper in Chicago. Built in 1969, John Hancock Center is 100 floors and 1,127 feet tall. It has two addresses: 875 North Michigan Avenue and 175 East Delaware Place.

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Chicago, Illinois

I visited Chicago in February of 2000 when I visited the Illinois Institute of Technology. The handful of pictures I have of Chicago are from a brief sightseeing tour the college offered. While in college in Milwaukee, I went to the Chicago International Auto Show a couple of times, but did not see much of the city.

Chicago, Illinois is the third largest city in the United States, with a population of 2.8 million people in the actual city of Chicago, and nearly 10 million in the entire metro area. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County. The name Chicago come from a Native American word meaning strong or great.

Chicago was incorporated as a town on August 12, 1833, with a population of 350. It became a city on March 4, 1937. By that time, the population had reached 4,170.

Some notable events in Chicago's history include:

Chicago's Great Fire. Around 9:00 P.M. on Sunday, October 8, 1871, a fire broke out in Mr. Patrick O'Leary's cowbarn. The exact cause of the fire was never determined, though legend holds that a cow knocked over a lantern. The fire spread quickly and destroyed most of the city.

First Skyscraper Built. The first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. The building was the 9-story Home Insurance Building. It has long been demolished and another building constructed on the site.

Chicago River Reversed. The Chicago River originally flowed into Lake Michigan, which was also the city water supply. In order to keep sewage from the Chicago River from reaching the lake, a massive project including a 28-mile canal to reverse the flow of the river was started in the 1800s and completed in 1900. The Chicago River now flows into the Mississippi River system.

Some of Chicago’s landmarks are covered in the following posts:

Chicago Skyline
Adler Planetarium
Soldier Field

Chicago Links:
City of Chicago
Willis Tower
Shedd Aquarium
Adler Planetarium
Soldier Field

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