[Gman347]

I know that one story building to the south. Occasionally I will walk south on Franklin to Van Buren and then walk east on Van Buren to Michigan Ave. I have often wondered to my self what that building is being used for now. I didn't know there was a CTA station above it.
I know that 209 Building well too. While everyone else seems to be looking down at their phones, having graduated with a degree in architecture, I am always looking up at the buildings. We have many, many beautiful masonry and stone buildings in downtown Chicago. I know it's and old saw but "They don't make em like that any more". It's a shame that many are gone. I can't help but wonder if what replaced them is really all that better. I have always thought that is a difference between us and Europe. So many historic buildings still exist in the big cities of Europe but we keep knocking ours down and building these ugly contemporary boxes. Oops, did I just get up on the soap box? http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/sign_sorry.gif My office is on south Michigan Avenue and I have had many occasions to ride the L to Evanston for project related work, I board the L at Jackson and Wabash and it takes me south to Van Buren, then west to Wells and finally north up Wells St. on its way to the north suburbs. The ride provides a view of the buildings from a slightly different perspective. The buildings are so close to the tracks, if someone has a newspaper on their desk in one of the offices you can almost read it! http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif


Really nice work Dave. I was studying the screenshots a little more closely and I can see you've captured a lot the details in the masonry spandrels and piers between windows. I love those big glass windows between the strips of masonry, the classic "Chicago School" style.

Rock On!

Paul http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

[Genma Saotome]

 Gman347, on 29 March 2020 - 07:34 AM, said:

Really nice work Dave. I was studying the screenshots a little more closely and I can see you've captured a lot the details in the masonry spandrels and piers between windows. I love those big glass windows between the strips of masonry, the classic "Chicago School" style.

Rock On!

Paul http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif

Thank for the nice feedback.

I have always loved downtown Chicago, fantastic buildings everywhere, tho some good ones have been lost. I'm going to be sure to do a couple of architectural tours next time I get there.

I wish there was a way to do terracotta:


I think that is the Roanoke Building, SE Corner of Madison and Lasalle. Not too shabby for an office building! Built in 1914.

Returning to the thread topic, The Brooks Building is on the NW corner of that block. On the SE corner are these two old guys:


The one on the left was built in 1893 and in the 50's it was known as the Vanburen Building. On the right, that was known as the Insurance Center building, built in 1927. They both look into the L on Vanburen (nearest track is 28ft away) and the Insurance Center has the Wells St line on it's east face. Not as close as those lines passing thru the tenement alleys but still pretty close.

[Genma Saotome]

I collect a LOT of images, mostly kept on my PC, but some on my Pinterest account. The url for the Chicago Architecture is here.

As best I can figure, all Pinterest does is let you save the url's of images for later viewing. It can be pretty handy.
Enjoy.