Connecting the Windy City

For the first time in my life a world leader has apologized to me in public.  Over the years there are a lot of apologies that I wished I could have heard  from these guys, but on Sunday I finally got one.

Unless it’s raining or there is a threat of seismic or volcanic activity I generally ride my bike down to the River Walk just below Michigan Avenue in order to give river tours for the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  I was almost down to my assigned boat two days ago when I ran up against a formidable barricade of Secret Service agents.

Dozens of us were stopped on both sides of the blockage as we waited for a delegation to board one of the First Lady boats for a river cruise.  So we stood—joggers, bikers, causal walkers, and pram-pushers.  All of us reflected in the sunglasses of the ecret Service detail.

Before too long there was movement and the delegation emerged from beneath Wacker Drive and began to board the boat.  The I-Phones came out but many users, I’m fairly confident, were not sure who it was they were snapping away at.

The dignitary turned out to be Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany since 2005.  As she took her place on the top deck of the First Lady, she looked to her left and saw all of us waiting to be about our morning’s business.

Facing us, she spread her arms out in a gesture of apology and mouthed the words, “I’m so sorry.  Thank you.”  At least that’s close to what she said.  It could easily have been, “Don’t shoot, boys.  They’re on our side.”   But her body language was that of apology, and I’m going with that.

The coolest part of the whole deal was the information that I found out 15 minutes after the boat sailed.  The narrator for Chancellor Merkel’s Architectural tour of the Chicago River?

Helmut Jahn.

Now T-H-A-T is an architectural tour.

By the way . . . the NATO summit has concluded, and Chicagoans can now go back to doing what we do best—basking in a sunny season in this city in a garden.

Now that the whole thing is over, I have just one observation.  For me, aside from the remarkable restraint that the Chicago police showed, my most pronounced impression was the difference between the protestors of the New Millennium and those nefarious nabobs of negativism of my generation.

Back in the sixties they took to the streets, smashed windows, threw projectiles, turned over police cars and set them on fire.  The time was right for violent revolution.  Over the past several days we have really seen none of that.

I suspect that is, from the looks of the video, because all of these folks are so focused on capturing the scene on their I-Phones that there is no time for real mayhem.

Once again, a big thanks to Steve Jobs.

Found on the pages of The Chicago Tribune . . . this was taking place in Chicago on May 17, 1921 . . .

Found on the pages of The Chicago Tribune, on this date in 1911 this was taking place . . .

No exhibit at the City Planning Exhibition, taking place in Philadelphia, attracted more attention than the Commercial Club of Chicago’s Chicago Plan of 1909.  This was the third national conference of city planning, and the exhibits were displayed in Philadelphia’s City Hall. 

According to The Tribune, the plan “is recognized as being the perfection of city planning and quite naturally is sought out first by those intent upon studying city planning in all its varied phases.”

Also a part of the Chicago exhibit were presentations from the Lincoln Park and South Park commissions, including plans for playgrounds and the suggested treatment for Grand Boulevard, a design that was prepared by the Olmsted Brothers in 1908.

Speakers lined up for this day’s events included Irving K. Pond of Chicago, the President of the American Institute of Architects.  (He would have been an appropriate choice at the conference; the Pond Brothers had five years or so earlier designed much of Jane Adams’s Hull House). 

Delegates from Chicago Included Edward H. Bennett, co-author of the Chicago Plan and future designer of Buckingham Fountain and the DuSable Bridge that carries Michigan Avenue across the river and Ossian C. Simonds who began his career with William LeBaron Jenney, formed a practice with William Holabird and Martin Roche and was responsible for the landscape design of Chicago’s beautiful Graceland Cemetery, among many other landscape projects.

Of course, the Chicago Plan of 1909, also known as the Burnham Plan, was one of the first great efforts in this country at city planning.  It still impacts the city today.  In the far-reaching plan Burnham and Bennett look toward (1) the improvement of the lakefront; (2) a regional highway system; (3) improvement of railway terminals and facilities; (4) new outer parks; (5) a more systematic arrangement of streets; and (6) the planning for civic and cultural centers.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the plan was the single-most important document in the development of Chicago.

Found on the pages of The Chicago Tribune, this occurred on this day, May 15, 1901, in Chicago . . .

“I consider the way the animals in Lincoln Park have been watered in the past is a crime for which this board must stand responsible if the practice continues,” said James H. Hirsch, member of the board, at the meeting of the commissioners this afternoon.

Mr. Hirsch continued as the commissioners “looked as if they were receiving electric shocks.”

“I desire to present a motion that this board at once arrange with the Water department of the City of Chicago for a supply for these animals.”  Without delay the motion was unanimously carried, and plans were made to lay pipes a distance of 300 feet to the nearest city main.

Speaking of the situation Mr. Hirsch said, “No wonder the animals in Lincoln Park have been sick of late.  The polar bear nearly died during the last few days, and for no other reason than drinking this filthy water that would kill a hyena.  The flowers in the conservatories have been supplied with city water and the horses in the big red barn also have been favored, but the wild animals in the zoo nearly have been exterminated by being forced to drink filth.”

Also at this meeting General P. H. Winston made a pitch for plowing and seeding of the filled-in land of the park at Chicago Avenue and the lake, just north of Captain Streeter’s “District of Lake Michigan.”  The board voted to begin this work at once.

The final item on the park board’s agenda was a proposal from George Richardson, an inventor, who presented a plan for a new seawall of concrete made by driving piles, to which wire netting would be attached, with the squares created then being filled with concrete.  The plan was referred to the new Committee on North Shore Protection.

The Lincoln Park Zoo was formed in 1868 when New York City’s Central Park Commissioners gave the Lincoln Park Commissioners a pair of swans.  Today the zoo holds over 1250 animals.