ethereal, that last one was taken from the driveway at the concourse of Union Station, looking east across the south branch of the river.. The concourse, which actually sat above the tracks unlike the Great Hall 1 block west, was torn down in 1969 to be replaced with two modernist office boxes.
__________________ la forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas! que le coeur d'un mortel...
hi ardecila
Here is a pic of the lamented concourse (destroyed 1969) with the
Great Hall of Union Station directly behind.
I didn't realize cars could park along that north/south driveway on the west side of the Chicago River (directly in front of the concourse ).
I can vaguely pick out the classical lighting fixture(s) that appear in the slide....AND in the concourse photograph.
You're really good at this. I'm impressed.
Last edited by ethereal_reality; May 20, 2008 at 3:18 AM.
ardecila-
Do you have any information on the office tower that was originally
to rise above the Great Hall?
All I have is this tiny postcard...
and I just found this illustration.
Also, what is the expansive building directly north of the Great Hall?
That was the proposed Post Office. It would've been between Union Station and Chicago & Northwestern Terminal.
It later got built over Congress Pkwy/Eisenhower Expwy. Now it just sits there abandoned. The opening scene (bank robbery) of "The Dark Knight" was filmed there.
__________________ "What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? ... it is lofty. ... It must be tall, every inch of it tall. ... It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line." — Louis H. Sullivan. From "The tall office building artistically considered," Lippincott's Magazine, March 1896.
I didn't know that about Union Station, the concourse.
When I took a train out of there in Feb, I thought it was kind of strange when I realized I was walking east out of the station footprint, under the street and into the basement of a building across the street.
Makes more sense now.
I had to check out this thread again...and HOLY FREAKING GOD, words cannot come close to describing the level of pure Godliness present here. It's unfuckingbelievable.