Skyline
by wjw on September 12, 2012
Behold a photo of a rather small portion of the Chicago skyline, taken at night from across the bay at the planetarium.
Downtown Chicago was a banquet of architectural delights. The Great Chicago Fire meant the whole city had to start all over from scratch, and over the decades the tall buildings went up in every style imaginable. Beaux-arts, Gothic revival, Deco, lots of variations on the Mies Box, post-modern, post-this, post-that, post-everything.
And you can see them all. New York has equally impressive buildings, I’m sure, but often as not you’re stuck in a concrete canyon and you can’t view much but the walls on either side. Chicago has broad avenues, and of course the expanse of the Chicago River, so you can stand back and appreciate the variety rising up around you.
Remember, skyscrapers were invented here.
I enjoyed myself every time I went out of doors.
Impressive photograph, Walter!
Trouble is, as a fervent environmentalist, who is very concerned about the biodiversity crisis, every time I see a picture like that I can’t help but think of the many square miles that have been concreted over – square miles that are no longer available for non-humans to flourish on. I wouldn’t be so concerned if we knew where to stop – but I suspect that we’ll only learn where the limits are when we run into them … hard!
Dave Bishop, if it is any consolation, even more square miles would be concreted over had they decided to build out rather than up. When you see a skyscraper, think that population density is a good thing.
–Brian R.
Can’t argue with that, Brian!
People who live in big cities have a much smaller footprint than people who live in the country or in suburbs. Compare energy usage between a 1200-squre-foot apartment and a 1200-squre-foot freestanding house. Ayee.
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