Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Commuting through Architecture...

My tuesday routine requires me to drive in to work, find the best (read "cheap") parking available, and then resume my regular work day when I walk out of the parking garage. The Tuesday commute has become a guilty pleasure for me, especially when Chicago's various weather gods call a ceasefire in their war against nice days and let it actually be 65 and sunny at 7:30am.

I love walking out of my three flat and into nice weather, on a residential street. A great change of pace from three apartments in a row that never had the residential street feel because they were either right next to the neighborhood's main drag, or right on it. The first part of the drive is about the music and the rush of zigzagging around bored drivers. They must hate their commute because they do it everyday, or hate their jobs so much they drive slow just to delay the inevitable. The skyline is just visible east of all the West Town neighborhoods, kind of hovers there like the Emerald City or some other majestic destination.

The real fun of the commute begins downtown though - by then I've settled into the music, the windows are down, today even the sunroof was open, sleeves rolled up, and as the car makes the last left turn of the morning, I'm facing east and its all skyscrapers and train stations and at the very end of the route, before the last right turn...the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker Pavilion sits there, like a transformer in between forms, or Robo-Crab.

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