Afternoon Scene - Buildings

You know, if you just look up, one can see some pretty interesting geometry.

Morning Scene - Aon Center

It's a cold, blustery, misty day here in Chicago. Here's a cool view of the 83-story Aon Center where I work. This is the corner of the building looking up to the tippy-top that's shrouded in clouds.  And no, this is not a black & white photo -- it's just a dreary, gray day

Aon Center

Here’s a really cool photo that I took of the building where I work, the 83-story Aon Center in Chicago.
I just love this building, even before I worked here. It’s the fourth tallest building in the U.S. and there’s nothing pretty about it. It was completed in 1973, the same time as the World Trade Towers in New York and one year before Chicago’s Sears Tower took its world record in 1974.

It has absolutely “no” architectural appeal. There’s no art deco from the 1930s, no new colored-glass from the 1950s, no neo-modern design of the mid 60s -- It’s a pure, blatant, prime example of the strictly utilitarian, functional design from the early 1970s.

But it works.

Although this slender white structure was the second-tallest building in Chicago for 36 years, I doubt that any Chicagoan could tell you that. It's address lies two blocks west of Lake Shore Drive and also two blocks east of Chicago's downtown Loop.

Its towering, nondescript "non-iconicness" connects our city together, really, without anyone ever realizing it.

So that's why I love it, and always have.

Even when I first visited Chicago in 1988, I was really captivated by this building. I was a restaurant manager and church organist back then. . . .

Little did I know that 22 years later would have me being a mid-level manager with a windowless office on the 22nd floor of this fine building.

Sigh . . . It’s always pretty amazing how life works out.

Evening Scene - The Aon Center

For the past couple of weeks, the front doors at my workplace (Aon Center) have been closed periodically and I didn’t know why.

Here’s why:

From the Chicago Tribune:

The countdown to the Olympic bid announcement has been exhausting -- just ask the 20 or so workers armed with black plastic and duct tape at the Aon Center.

Since Sept. 16, the team of engineers, carpenters and others has hustled to create 12-story countdown numbers by illuminating and shading offices on the building's south side. Wednesday night was "2" -- a tricky numeral because of its curves and points. Thursday night will be "1," which is more difficult than it looks, said Matt Amato, general manager for Jones Lang LaSalle, which manages the tower at 200 E. Randolph St.

Workers usually wait until office employees are gone to haul in ladders and step stools. They politely ask late-working tenants to leave their lights on or to allow a shade to be taped up as they work, Amato said.

People don't always remember.

"There have been plenty of nights where I or another staff member has stood out in the middle of Millennium Park to see how it looks and then we see there's a light missing on the 50th floor, the fourth window," Amato said.

In those cases, workers use walkie-talkies to communicate the glitch back to staff, who make necessary adjustments inside the building. Aon's countdown, which has required a different Excel spreadsheet design and change of window dressing every night for more than two weeks, is the building's most ambitious to date, Amato said.

(Our offices are on the south side but only on the 22nd floor.)

Here’s a test-run they did the other night:

My Workplace

I took this happy-snap of the building where I work as I was leaving today.

I've always loved this building, even before I moved to Chicago.

Many folks think that the John Hancock Building is the second-tallest building in Chicago since it's 100 stories, but it's not. The Aon Center (where I work) is only 80 stories , but it's actually nine feet taller.

The Hancock, at 100 stories, is comprised of condos, whereas the Aon Center is comprised of office space. The top of the Aon Center (where I work) is nine feet taller the top of the Hancock.
A lot of people in Chicago don't know that.

They think that since the Sears Tower has 110 stories, the Hancock has a hundred stories, then since the Aon Center has only 80 stories, that it's the third tallest building in Chicago.

That is SOooo not true!
MY office building is the SECOND tallest in Chicago.
NOT the third!

The top of the Sears Tower is 1450 ft
The top of the Aon Center is 1136 ft.
The top of the Hancock is 1127 ft.