Wind, Chicago

I fly into Chicago and take the train downtown from the airport, changing platforms at Washington Station to get to Grand Avenue. I'm humming the theme music to Due South and the opening cascading notes wash a heavy sense of nostalgia over a bleak winter day and a city I know only from the movies. Wheeling my case behind heeled boots and violently flapping International Woman of Mystery black coat, I struggle with the wind tunnel down East Ohio Avenue, one of a towering silver row of ‘Great Lakes’ avenues north of the Chicago River and west of Lake Michigan.

The ground foyer to Matt's high rise apartment has a professional air to it, all expansive ceiling and revolving doors. I straighten skirt self-consciously, tame tousled hair behind ears and announce myself at reception as I'm trying in vain to picture Matt in this shiny backdrop, incongruent against the all-purpose linen world traveler I'd met in Thailand 4 years ago.

Matt opens the door on the 20th floor. Familiar eyes are laughing and he greets me, dryly, "You look like you're going to an interview".

Sitting barefoot and drinking herbal tea crosslegged on the carpet of a studio apartment devoid of furniture except for the two mattresses, a chair and boxes supporting a computer, I face the wall of glass that frames the view across Chicago sky scrapers and a teasing glimpse of Lake Michigan. There feels little need for trimmings.

* * * * *

Mar 13, 2006. I'm late to meet Matt downtown near the Sears tower during his lunch break. Consequently the architectural tour of the city I've been promised is a whirlwind one (in ''the windy city'', I mean this in more sense than one).

I know nothing of architecture; a concept Matt has some trouble grasping. As I am escorted conspiratorially into each softly lit, exquisitely ornamental or handsomely gilded Art Deco foyer, the likes of architects I have never heard of – Burnham and Root, Holabird and Roche, Frank Llyod Wright – Matt mentions as if old school friends; names I should remember if I put my mind to it. Many of the architectural greats have left their stamp on Chicago; a city to rise from the ashes of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire into one of the world's greatest displays of modern architecture. It is a city of sky scraper landmarks that, on a less windswept day, would inspire one to linger. And, beneath the demanding silhouettes of LaSalle Street and others, lavish foyers of 1920s and 30s interior decadence have stood the test of time.

Obscure Tangents

Fraser of Due South.. "member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who first came to Chicago on the trail of his father's killer and for reasons that don't require explaining at this juncture in time, he stayed on as liaison to the Canadian Consulate." [Picture left: Fraser and his wolf, Diefenbaker]

Photographs

[The Chicago window on Quincy Street - a large pane of glass flanked by narrow, moveable sash windows]