Architecture River Cruise

I fell in love with Chicago. The art, the people, the food, and especially the architecture. On the last day of my class I sat crunching on an apple during break, thinking to myself that I ought to stay another day, sketch at the Art Institute, and try to find an architecture tour.

At that very moment a class member sitting across from me, eating a banana, struck up a conversation about my being from out of town, and told me I really must go on an architecture tour. "The one on the boat that goes down the Chicago River. Google it", she said.

So I stayed an extra day and took the Chicago Architecture Foundation's River Cruise. It was fabulous!! I highly recommend this tour to anyone who finds themselves in Chicago. I learned how each building's design was influenced by the mindset about business at the time. The corners of the Montgomery Ward building housed its wiring and heating/cooling systems. The emphasis in business was on teamwork in that era, and that way no one person would have a corner office. One building, built in the 1980's, had 4 staggered corners on each of its sides, in order to create 16 corner offices.