Atop The Sears Tower
Note to self: Do NOT ever pay money to go to the top of skyscrapers just to look at the view. Today, in between two meetings in Chicago's downtown financial district, I was persuaded to go up with 4 others to the top of the Sears Tower. It was a clear day and the Sears is like the 3rd tallest building in the world. And since there were no shops around and nothing better to do, I thought: why not?
It was so NOT worth the US$11.95 I ponied up. First of all, it took forever to get up there. You had to sit through a film about how the tower was designed and built. As the story unfolds, you realise there wasn't a vision at all. Sears-Roebuck decided to consolidate all their operations into one tower and also sold a lot of office space to would-be occupants. The design of the building was actually thought of in a bar when the architect took 9 cigarettes and held them in a bunch in his hand, he then varied the height of some of the cigarettes, some shorter, some taller and voila -- the Sears Tower was born. Because some of the 9 square "tubes" were shorter, the taller ones had to be extra tall(to satisfy the psf requirement stipulated in advance). Soon, they realised they were close to becoming the tallest building in the world, so they decided to build extra long antennae and claim the crown. There's humour in this goof-ball story if you look hard enough.
Luckily, Chicago is blessed with quite nice buildings and parks etc, so the view from above was not as much a waste of time. But in all other respects, it was the same boring view of roads criss-crossing tiny buildings and houses down below. Of course, it was packed with families with kids all running around. And loud elevator muzak was blaring (Why? Doesn't ethereal ambient music work better for that "top of the world/in the clouds" feeling?). After about 2 minutes I was bored, but had to stay the requisite half-an-hour for everyone to get their money's worth.
Chicago is a great city but we hardly had any time to check it out. I was especially sore to have missed the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (which incredibly, closes at 5pm even in summertime) on account of the meetings ending a bit late. Tonight it's off to Boystown for one last hurrah (the Gay Games ends tomorrow). The ability to go a bar by yourself and spend several hours there is a skill that will pay handsome dividends in future, I think. I haven't quite mastered it yet, but I'm getting there...
Added later:
So I go to Sidetrack tonight and guess who I run into: 3 Singaporeans who were part of the 19-strong Singapore Gay Games team. I recognised one of them (I had a brief but satisfying encounter with him in a Singapore sauna many years ago). Anyway I said hello and we hung out. Have to say that the Chicago gay scene really is quite fun (how many gay communities can boast of having their own street) and there are so many cute local guys. I was introduced to one tonight that was so impossibly cute -- my height, big arms, babyfaced blonde with requisite goatee and beard, nice big tummy and big calves showing from under his long shorts... Yum!!
Goodbye Chicago, I hardly knew thee!
It was so NOT worth the US$11.95 I ponied up. First of all, it took forever to get up there. You had to sit through a film about how the tower was designed and built. As the story unfolds, you realise there wasn't a vision at all. Sears-Roebuck decided to consolidate all their operations into one tower and also sold a lot of office space to would-be occupants. The design of the building was actually thought of in a bar when the architect took 9 cigarettes and held them in a bunch in his hand, he then varied the height of some of the cigarettes, some shorter, some taller and voila -- the Sears Tower was born. Because some of the 9 square "tubes" were shorter, the taller ones had to be extra tall(to satisfy the psf requirement stipulated in advance). Soon, they realised they were close to becoming the tallest building in the world, so they decided to build extra long antennae and claim the crown. There's humour in this goof-ball story if you look hard enough.
Luckily, Chicago is blessed with quite nice buildings and parks etc, so the view from above was not as much a waste of time. But in all other respects, it was the same boring view of roads criss-crossing tiny buildings and houses down below. Of course, it was packed with families with kids all running around. And loud elevator muzak was blaring (Why? Doesn't ethereal ambient music work better for that "top of the world/in the clouds" feeling?). After about 2 minutes I was bored, but had to stay the requisite half-an-hour for everyone to get their money's worth.
Chicago is a great city but we hardly had any time to check it out. I was especially sore to have missed the Wolfgang Tillmans exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (which incredibly, closes at 5pm even in summertime) on account of the meetings ending a bit late. Tonight it's off to Boystown for one last hurrah (the Gay Games ends tomorrow). The ability to go a bar by yourself and spend several hours there is a skill that will pay handsome dividends in future, I think. I haven't quite mastered it yet, but I'm getting there...
Added later:
So I go to Sidetrack tonight and guess who I run into: 3 Singaporeans who were part of the 19-strong Singapore Gay Games team. I recognised one of them (I had a brief but satisfying encounter with him in a Singapore sauna many years ago). Anyway I said hello and we hung out. Have to say that the Chicago gay scene really is quite fun (how many gay communities can boast of having their own street) and there are so many cute local guys. I was introduced to one tonight that was so impossibly cute -- my height, big arms, babyfaced blonde with requisite goatee and beard, nice big tummy and big calves showing from under his long shorts... Yum!!
Goodbye Chicago, I hardly knew thee!
posted by rookcub at
9:31 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home