We took a 3.5h bus and walking tour of architectural highlights this morning, which included visits to the campus of the University of Chicago housing the 1906 Robie House of Frank Lloyd Wright, buildings by Mies van der Rohe at The Illinois Institute of Technology, and even a peak at the Obama home. We could spend days longer exploring this city, but finished with a quirky curiosity: the Sky Chapel. The First Methodist Church (called the Chicago Temple) in the city is a 23 storey building, with a church on the ground floor, many levels of commercially rented space, and atop all that a gothic tower and steeple. In the hexagonal tower are three floors of accommodation for the senior pastor and above that a tiny round chapel of wood and stained glass, that holds only 30 people and is used for just occasional weddings or special services. It is the highest worship space in the world - i.e. highest from the ground - and open daily for tours at 2pm. The chapel was built in 1952 funded by the Walgreen family (a famous pharmacy chain in the US).
See Geoff’s photos for a taste of what we saw today. Tomorrow we leave very early to fly to San Francisco, leaving behind this lovely place. It doesn’t have the picturesque geography of Sydney, and is very flat, but for those who love architecture it is definitely a place of pilgrimage.
PS: almost every day we have been asked “Are you Twins?” We are bemused by this, but we are thinking of getting a T-shirt saying “No We Aren’t!”