Two Views of ... Lake Shore East

If you haven't visited Chicago in a few years, then the Loop lakefront area is going to surprise you. There's been a building boom as these two photos below show. The left picture is now. The right picture is "then" (around 1998).

Yes, there was a golf course right in the Loop. It was constructed back in the 1990s as a way to use the land when a downtown office building glut postponed a big development. When the real estate market picked up again in the early 2000s, the golf course was closed and construction on the new Lakeshore East development began.

Eye, at the Museum

When I was at the museum, the staircase looked like an eye, at the museum.

This is the staircase at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. It spirals around a koi pond.

Special Theme Day: Where is our Blogger?

One of our fellow City Daily Photo bloggers is missing in Tehran. Today is a special Theme Day on City Daily Photo to show support for his freedom and everyone's continued freedom to share information and pictures.

In 1998, Chicago renamed the road between the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium, shown above, as Solidarity Drive to commemorate Lech Walesa's campaign, known as the Solidarity Movement, to bring freedom to Poland.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

What's in Season?

Sometime in the last week, the farmers' markets burst into rainbows. This is just a small sample of my options at the markets.

I love how the colors of produce change with the seasons. In early Spring, there's a lot of green (asparagus, leeks, spinach, lettuce, young garlic). Later in Spring, a little color starts creeping in with radishes, rhubarb and strawberries. Then Summer hits and the colors go wild. A lot of the farmers grow heirloom varieties so we get things like purple carrots, blue potatoes and yellow beets.

The berries are starting to come in, too, now: blueberries, cherries, raspberries. Those are more difficult to take a photo of, though. They seem to disappear before I get my camera set-up. ;)

Feathered Friends: Red Eyed Vireo

We never would have been able to identify this little Red Eyed Vireo in Grant Park without this picture. We could see some identifying marks (eye stripes, coloring) in the other pictures I had, but there were a lot of birds that fit that general description. Its red eye is clear in this photo.

More pictures of the Red Eyed Vireo are at my birdwatching blog, which is here.

Deep Cleaning

The Old Colony Building, a landmark building, in the Loop, was getting a facial of sorts earlier this week. (According to an on-line article, here, The Old Colony Building was one of the first buildings constructed after the Chicago Fire. Its architects, Holabird & Roche used the "Chicago Style" design steel frame structure that enabled skyscrapers to be built.)

This work crew was power-washing the building facade. I didn't see the the scaffolding at first; what caught my eye were the parked cars covered in plastic. That made me look up to see what was going on. I think you can better see the progress they've made in the second picture.

All Music All Summer

Free outdoor concerts are everywhere in Chicago in the Summer. They don't have them in the winter because it's hard to play the guitar when the strings are covered with ice.

This is a band called Better Than Ezra. This was the first of three concerts in a series that will be held at Pioneer Court and is part of an effort to collect donations for the Greater Chicago Food Depository.