Project 49

Chicago, Illinois is one of my favorite cities in the U.S. – but that’s probably because I’ve never been there in the winter. My three previous visits to the city had been in summer, when it was sometimes uncomfortably warm and humid, but the weather was clear and pleasant during this Spring visit.

During my first visit to Chicago in 1990, I went to the observation deck at the top of the Sears Tower, and I decided to repeat this on this visit. Back in 1990, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world. 21 years later, however, other buildings – in the Middle East and Asia – have surpassed it, and it is now the 8th-tallest (or perhaps the 5th-tallest, or the 2nd-tallest, depending on how you measure it). Its name has also changed; it is now officially called the “Willis Tower”, although almost everyone in Chicago still refers to it as the Sears Tower.

View from the top of the Sears Tower: Looking North

View from the top of the Sears Tower: Looking East

View from the top of the Sears Tower: Looking South

Downtown Chicago from Lakeshore Drive, at night

Downtown Chicago from the Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park

"Cloud Gate" (aka. "The Bean"), Millennium Park

"Cloud Gate" (aka. "The Bean"), Millennium Park - from the inside