Writing about cities
More Park Avenue Motorist Mayhem
Originally uploaded by bicyclesonly
Transportation for America reports 400 pedestrians killed each month. Thankfully, no pedestrians were hurt in the collision you see here.
More of you need to carry cameras around to document this travesty. You’ve seen my photos. Where’re yours?
Watch for my article on pedestrian safety coming on Friday (I wrote it a month ago, but the information and message isn’t late).
Automobile congestion on the Kennedy Expressway* (I-90/94), taken from the L tracks above Lake Street in Chicago, Illinois.
Other things that never end (a roundup of sorts):
Do you recognize this building?
This building doesn’t have a memorable name so I often forget it. The 105-foot crown lights up at night making it the most visible building in Chicago, competing with the Sears Tower in the colored lights spectacle throughout the year.
According to Emporis, “311 South Wacker Drive is the tallest building in the world known only by its street address.”
I don’t think it’s known very well, though. Perhaps if the tenants gave it a name, more people would know what to call it – civic buffs, budding planners, and longtime residents love to show they’re up to snuff when it comes to talking about their city, but they usually take a pass on this one, opting instead to call attention to the UBS Tower three blocks away on Madison, with its eye-catching lobby. (Architecture and design students around the world will know this concrete skyscraper before the average Chicago learns its “name.”)
I bet, though, that you’re more likely to find 311 S Wacker before you find the Chicago Board of Trade building.
I went to the top floor of UIC’s University Hall and took a few hundred shots with my Olympus E-500 digital SLR. That was 3 years. I came across them while switching photo libraries, iPhoto to Aperture. From this high up vantage point that’s removed from the skyscraper core, you can see different spaces, shapes, and interactions.
You should be able to tell that Peoria Street had auto traffic across the entire bridge over the Eisenhower (I-290), but then the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) took over this area in the 1960s (shortly after the sunken Blue Line was built). An expanded station house was built with a large waiting area which includes interior bike parking within the paid fare zone.
UIC has classrooms immediately north and south of the expressway and Blue Line so it’s in their students’ best interest to have good access to the train station.
How could the former road space be changed now to make this a better public space or plaza?
I think the first thing I would do is remove the curbs – if you’re riding a bike these get in the way.