1397-1400, 3432 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - Chicago Skyscrapers

3432 Chicago skyline dominated by John Hancock Center

In the 1770s, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established a fur trading post in the area which later became known as Fort Dearborn, along the bank of the Chicago River. In 1837, the settlement had a little more than 3,500 inhabitants and was incorporated as a city. Located near a portage between the Great Lakes and the  Mississippi River watershed, Chicago emerged as an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States, becoming the fastest growing city in the world for several decades. 

1397 Downtown Chicago with Northwestern Train Station,
Presidential Towers and Willis Tower

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the American economy was transformed by the industrial revolution, in which the city of Chicago was its leader, becoming America's second largest city and a leading industrial center. The Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed most buildings within the downtown area, led to the largest building boom in the history of the nation. In 1885, the first steel-framed high-rise building, the Home Insurance Building, rose in the city as Chicago ushered in the skyscraper era.

1397 Chicago skyline seen from the Chicago River

Moreover, the city gave its name to the Chicago School and was home to the Prairie School, two movements in architecture, being able to say that the architecture of Chicago has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in city. Some of these are the so-called "Chicago seven":  James Ingo Freed, Tom Beeby, Larry Booth, Stuart Cohen, James Nagle, Stanley Tigerman, and Ben Weese. Today, the city's skyline is among the world's tallest and most dense.

1399 Willis Tower

Willis Tower (known also as Sears Tower) is a 108-story, 442m skyscraper completed in 1973. It surpassed the World Trade Center towers in New York to become the tallest building in the world, a title held for nearly 25 years. Its innovative design, structurally efficient and economic, inspired by an advertisement for a package of cigarettes, was realised by the architect Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, who used for the first time bundled tube structure. The tower's observation deck (the Skydeck), located on the 103rd floor, is 412m high and is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Chicago.

1400 Willis Tower and Wacker Drive

Presidential Towers is a series of four nearly identical towers with 49 storeys (141m), each a step back from the leader, and spanning two city blocks. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates and built between 1985 and 1986, it was one of the pioneering residential projects in the River West neighborhood, an area that was once seen as nothing more than a ramshackle collection of old brick warehouses. 333 West Wacker Drive is an office building with a height of 149m, designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates and completed in 1983. On the side facing the Chicago River, the building features a curved green glass façade, while on the other side the building adheres to the usual rectangular street grid.

2675 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - University of Chicago

Founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and wealthiest man in history John D. Rockefeller, the University of Chicago, a private research university, was incorporated in 1890. It is composed of the College, various graduate programs, and interdisciplinary committees organized into five academic research divisions, six professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies.

2461 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - Soldier Field in Chicago

Soldier Field is an American football stadium on the Near South Side of Chicago, opened in 1924 as Municipal Grant Park Stadium, and renamed in 1925, as a memorial to U.S. soldiers who had died in combat. Its is best known as the home field of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL), who began play there in 1971. Beginning in 2016 it will be the second-oldest stadium in the league when the Los Angeles Rams begin playing temporarily at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which opened a year earlier.

2319 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - Buckingham Fountain in Chicago

Built in a Rococo wedding cake style and inspired by the Latona Fountain at the Palace of Versailles, Buckingham Fountain in the center of Grant Park in Chicago is one of the largest fountains in the world. It represents Lake Michigan, with four sea horses symbolizing the four states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana) that border the lake, and was designed by beaux arts architect  Edward H. Bennett. The statues were created by the French sculptor Marcel F. Loyau.
 

2129, 2314 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - Illinois map

Posted on 17.12.2015, 20.02.2016

Located between Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan, Illinois is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, to the Atlantic Ocean, and to the Mississippi River.

Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains, it does have some minor variation in its elevation. It has three major geographical divisions: Northern Illinois, dominated by Chicagoland; Central Illinois, mostly prairie, characterized by small towns and medium-small cities; Southern Illinois, the site of the ancient city of  Cahokia, as well as the site of the first state capital at  Kaskaskia. The capital city of the state is Springfield, and the largest city is Chicago, the third most populous city in the US.

1950 UNITED STATES (Missouri / Illinois) - Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River

Connecting St. Louis (Missouri) and East St. Louis (Illinois), the Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River, named for its designer and builder, James B. Eads. When completed in 1874, it was the longest arch bridge in the world, with an overall length of 1,964m. The ribbed steel arch spans were considered daring, as was the use of steel as a primary structural material. It was also the first bridge built using cantilever support methods exclusively, and one of the first to make use of pneumatic caissons.

1401 UNITED STATES (Illinois) - James R. Thompson Center in Chicago

James R. Thompson Center houses offices of the Illinois state government. The building, opened in 1985 as the State of Illinois Center, was renamed in 1993 to honor former Illinois Governor James R. Thompson. The property takes up one of the 35 full-size city blocks within Chicago's Loop. It was designed by Murphy/Helmut Jahn and opened to mixed reviews by critics, ranging from "outrageous" to "wonderful". The 17-storeys, all-glass exterior does not reflect the building's function, and instead conveys an image of pure postmodernism.