Writing about cities
Amtrak California trains run in the street through Jack London Square in Oakland, California.
Street running is a common sight around the world. This particular spot has Amtrak, commuter and freight trains sharing the street with all other “normal” users. RailPictures contributors have over 2,000 photos uploaded (search by category). See more photos from this area from El Cobrador and pbo31.
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.
Grab your laptop and fall comfortably into your first class couch or easy chair and load up my first world photographic tour.
Flickr is a goldmine of the best photos on earth. Find photos of anything and everything. Learn about far off and not so far off places. With World Tour #1, learn about new transportation developments in Dubai, flashy architecture in England and Spain, and stacked infrastructure in Japan. But our tour won’t be all ritz and glamor. See moveable bridges in Chicago and protected bike lanes in New York City.
See all 15 photos in my World Tour #1 gallery on Flickr, or start the tour below.
Let’s begin!
Spaceship architecture from starchitect Santiago Calatrava. The first building at City of Arts and Sciences, a planetarium, was constructed in 1998. Location: Valencia, Spain. Photo by: Guidotoni58.
Motorists can’t turn at this intersection. Probably to reduce traffic congestion and to accommodate pedestrians. Also notice the enormous stores from luxury goods brands Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton. Location: Hong Kong (SAR China). Photo by: PSeangsong.
New train line and rolling stock intended for 2012 Olympics use. 29 trains with 6 cars each. Travels between St. Pancras and Ebbsfleet stations. (I don’t understand the divisions of England and greater London; I decided it would be easier to list the terminals instead of cities or villages.) Location: Greater London, England. Photo by: Fugu ツ.
See 12 more photos and descriptions in my World Tour #1 gallery on Flickr. My favorite photo is the final one, showing an elevated intersection just for pedestrians (similar to what you might see in Las Vegas, Nevada, or any Asian city with a few million residents).
