This one was our 10 year anniversary 'hoods!
Bill planned it.
I joined him, along with Jo, Emo (her first 'hoods!) and her daughter, Ellie.
We had seen some of this almost 10 years ago when we 'hoods-ed Hyde Park.
But Bill wasn't on that 'Hoods.
So he wanted to re-visit.
And we did!
'Hoods University of Chicago packet
'Hoods University of Chicago flickr pics page
We met up at Build Coffee. Great coffee. Good pastry. Lots of zines and 'civic journalism projects' for sale. Local artists on the walls. We took the last table. Nice college/radical vibe.
We then got in our cars and drove over to the Midway.
The weather wasn't super cooperative that day. Cold and snowy.
Though, appropriate. That's approx what the weather was like on the first 'hoods, 10 years previous.
But it meant we walked less than usual. More hopping in and out of cars.
We DID stop at the Thomas Garrigue Masaryk Monument to check it out. Czech president who had spent time teaching at the U of C. "Jesus not Caesar"
Next stop was the David M. Rubenstein Forum. The building was still being built. And Emo's the big boss on the job site. So we suited up in vests and hard hats and gloves and did 'hoods's first building site visit! VERY cool.
It will eventually be, like, a convention center/special events space for the University. It has 5 floors (I think) of large meeting spaces. One floor has raked seating. There's a cool cantilevered rooftop. There are a few dramatic staircases. Lots of windows looking out over the University and the Midway. Very cool architecture. It will be lovely when it's done. It was super cool to see Emo in her element, and to see a piece of Chicago architecture, in the making.
We then took a stroll down the Midway, visiting a few of the more significant spaces.
We pooped around the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle. Eero Saarinen architect. His only extant building in the city. We mostly just walked around the quad itself. No access to the interior for us.
We DID go inside the Mies Van der Rohe School of Social Service Admin building. It was very typically Mies. Horizontal. Steel. Glass. Black.
We walked by the Burton-Judson Courts. A neo-gothic dorm. Pretty. Bernie Sanders had stayed there. As well as Carl Sagan and Phillip Glass.
We visited the Shaler Memorial Angel by Loredo Taft. By his old workshop.
Now we're hungry. So back in our cars and we drive a bit south of the University to Daley's Restaurant. It's an institution and I'd never been, so I was pretty excited. It was established in 1892, though the current version, across the street from the old location, is much bigger than the original, and pretty recently built. 3/5 of us got the liver and onions and it was amazing.
Back to campus after lunch. We started at the Renaissance Society in Cobb Hall. It's a tiny little exhibition space. We saw a few large scale paintings by Silke Otto-Knapp called 'In the Waiting Room.' They were fine. But there WAS an a cappella competition happening in the building, as well. And a group was practicing in the exhibition space. That was pretty fabulous.
We tried to get into Room 405 in the George Herbert Jones Lab, on the National Register of Historic Places. It's where plutonium was first isolated. But we couldn't get in the building. 'hoods fail.
So we continued to toot around the campus.
We walked under Cobb Gate.
We walked by Regenstein Library.
We took a turn by the Joe and Rika Masueto Library, like a large, clear tortoise shell.
We had a sober moment by the Nuclear Energy monument, on the site of the first nuclear reaction.
And then we were tired and freezing.
Emo and Ellie peeled off from the group.
Bill, Jo and I got back in the car and drove over to Concrete Traffic, a large scale outdoor public sculpture. It's a 1957 Cadillac which is pretty much entirely encased in concrete. I kind-of loved it. It's currently parked in a parking garage. Fabulous.
And then we called it a day!
There's so much to see and experience at the University of Chicago. Learned some stuff, even though I've been on that campus multiple times! I'm sure that won't be the last :) And I'm sure she still has some secrets to share.
