If the recession were to cancel all downtown construction tomorrow, we’d still be way ahead in terms of our skyline. Never mind the serious economic ramifications; a glorious Chicago skyscape glowing like white-hot shattered glass can make us all feel exalted, even if we are on the el and some character next to us is splashing puke on the floor. This is art.
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An interesting cluster of buildings huddles at the northwest corner of Grant Park: the bevel-topped Associates Center, at Randolph and Michigan; the Two Prudential Plaza Building, a new annex to the old insurance stalwart, at Lake and Beaubien; and the enduring Amoco Building, at 200 E. Randolph, still monumental despite its ongoing epidermal surgery. Two Prudential Plaza adds new weight to that patch of lakefill east of Michigan Avenue first tested by its precursor, the Prudential Building, now known as One Prudential Plaza. The new tower needles the sky, symbolizing the mighty, infinitely aspiring power of American business. Never mind that the Japanese put up half the cash. Or that six months after its grand opening (complete with a red-carpet entrance flanked by actors pretending to be dead celebrities), the building is so poorly lighted that it virtually disappears at night. The structure nonetheless holds great potential as a Chicago landmark. Its companion was the first post-World War II skyscraper, in fact the first built after the long construction halt following the stock market crash of ’29. Let’s hope they light this new puppy before Hussein is fed to the camels.
But alleviation has arrived at last. Rising in relief on two sides of the Sears Tower are the AT&T and 311 S. Wacker buildings–welcome breaks from the cold, dead look of heavy power epitomized by the retailing monolith and other downtown examples of glass-and-steel modernism.
When the subway emerges from its hole we’re reminded of where we are, and Chicago’s vast collection of weather-bearing art is more than just a little good with the bad.
