Willis Tower and Museums in Chicago This is a beautiful place

Willis Tower

Willis Tower: On the edge of the Loop is the Willis Tower "(Wacker Drive and Adams Street, formerly the Sears Tower), which with its 110 floors rising 1,454ft (443m) in the air, was once the tallest building in the world. Actually the building consists of nine towers packed together, as its de-signers Skidmore, Owings & Merrill suggest, like squared cigarettes; they pop out of their packet at different heights. The structure's steel frame is sheathed in black aluminum with 16,000 bronze-tinted windows. Then there's the 103rd-floor Skydeck observatory.

Willis Tower

Lake Shore Drive: A trip along the Outer Lake Shore Drive the expressway is a delightful way to see the lakefront skyline On the South Side, you drive from Jackson Park past the sailboats moored in Chicago Harbor at Grant Park, up around Oak Street Beach, to Lincoln Park on the North Side and the boats of Belmont Harbor. South Lake Shore Drive leads to Chicago's greatest concentration of post-millennium ar architecture, situated in the aptly named Millennium Park

Crown Fountain consists of two glass-brick towers bracketing a shallow granite basin. The faces of a thousand Chicagoans alternate on video screens behind the bricks bout every five minutes, the face on the screen puckers up and 'spits' a stream of water that shoots out of the tower.
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, an outdoor concert venue for free classical music performances, was designed by architect Frank Gehry. The pavilion is framed with wavy sheets of stainless steel that resemble giant ribbons curling away from the stage. Gehry was also responsible for the stainless-steep-sided BP Bridge, a sinuous pedestrian pathway.
But Millennium Park's best-loved feature (and Chicago's newest symbol) is the curvaceous, three-story steel sculpture called Cloud Gate. Created by Anish Kapoor, its curved, reflective surface makes it a cross between a work of art and a funhouse mirror, and it is affectionately known as The Bean.

Willis Tower

Lincoln Park is worth a separate visit for its zoo. It has a terrific ape house, but better than all the usual tropical exotica (of which there's a good sample) is the charming idea of presenting farm animals - pigs, cows, goats, ducks, and chickens-for city kids who never saw a chicken that wasn't fried or barbecued and know little else besides cats, dogs, and pigeons. Similarly, the Lincoln Park Conservatory not only has a beautiful orchid collection and amazing African and South American trees, but also the simple enchantment of hollyhocks, hyacinths, snapdragons, and daisies in Grand-mother's Garden.

Beethoven on the lawn

• Among the Windy City's many achievements, few are more respected than the world-famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where the late George Sot was one of a long.series of distinguished European resident conductors.
• Tickets for their concerts at Symphony Center (220 South Michigan Avenue), currently conducted by Riccardo Muti, are difficult to get, but if you know well in advance when you'll be in Chicago, you can contact the orchestra directly for program details and reservations; go to www.cso.org.
• In summer, it's şlightly easier to get tickets, when the orchestra plays at Ravinia Park in the northern suburb of Highland Park. Here you can listen to their music and that of other major performers at this summer festival on the lawn while having a traditional Ravinia picnic' of chicken, strawberries, and wine.
  

  Willis Tower

Museums in Chicago

Museum Point in Grant Park (1300 South Lake Shore Drive) combines three fascinating exhibitions. The Shedd Aquarium (tel: 312-939-2438; www.sheddaquarium.org) is one of the largest in the world. It has 7,500 species of fish, including a gorgeous Coral Reef collection of 350 Caribbeancreatures. If you're lucky, you'll be there when scuba-divers go down to feed the big fish. The Field Museum of Natural History (tel: 312-922-9410; www.fieldmuseum.org) also encourages visitors to 'play' with some of the exhibits, though you may be intimidated at first by the giant rogue elephants fighting in the main hall.

Willis Tower

The Adler Planetarium (tel: 312-922-7827; www.adlerplanetarium.org) offers attractive multimedia sky shows. Apart from the well- presented but by now quite usual exhibits about space exploration, highlight include the daily shows. The Museum of Science and Industry (South Lake Shore Drive and 57th Street; tel:773-684-1414; www.msichicago.org) is the city's most popular museum because you don't just stand there and look, you get into the exhibits and do things. Go down a coal mine, walk through a huge model of the human heart, creep around a captured World War II German submarine, and press buttons and pull all kinds of levers with scarcely a Don't Touch' sign in sight.

Inside the Field Museum of Natural History

The Art Institute of Chicago (Michigan Avenue and  Adams Street; tel: 312-443-3600; www.artic.edu), at first an art school, now ranks as one of the great American mu- collection seems. In less than a century it has acquired a highlighted by a magnificent range of French  Impressionists and post-Impressionists. A modern wing houses significant works by Matisse, Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Edward
Hopper. Art buffs will also love the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (www2.mcachicago.org) with over 7000 exhibits including pieces by Sol LeWitt, Alexander Calder, Jeff Koons, and Rene Magritte.

Willis Tower

Detriot (Michigan):

older than Chicago, Detroit was established in 1701 by French aristocrat Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, whose name is now attached to the aristocrat of General Motors' cars. Detroit became the American capital of car manufacturing after Henry Ford built his first motor-driven vehicle in 1892. He revolutionized the American way of life in 1908 with his mass-produced 'Model T, which made cars available to
everyone. Detroit has had a rough ride in recent years, with the collapse of much of the motor industry and depopulation culminating in the city being declared bankrupt in 2013. However, grassroots efforts have stimulated creative, raw energy in the city, efforts have been made to revitalize downtown, and an ambitious plan by its City Hall to generate recovery is now underway.
Paint It black

• A master of the quotable aphorism, tycoon Henry Ford said, 'You can buy my cars in any color you like, as long as it's black.

The centerpiece of the Renaissance Center (Jefferson and Brush streets), in the dramatic group of seven shining black steel- and-tinted-glass towers, is the 73-story, cylindrical Marriott Hotel. The vast lobby has an indoor lake' surrounded by trees, and the lounges are reached by ramps and spiral staircases. There are bars and a restaurant on the 73rd floor to view the city- and over the border to Canada. Civic Center continues the Downtown bustle outdoors around Hart Plaza, which contains a striking Noguchi fountain.

Willis Tower

The Cultural Center (around Woodward and Kirby avenues) brings the city's museums together. The International Institute (111 East Kirby; www.imd.org) assembles under one roof the cultural artifacts, folklore, costumes, and dolls of 50 different countries. The Detroit Institute of

Arts (tel: 313-833-7900; www.dia.org) has some fine Old asters, including Pieter Brueghel's Wedding Dance, but the most provocative works are the frescoes by Mexican Marxist painter Diego Rivera of Detroit automobile plants.
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