Explore Photoblogging
Walking to lunch recently I noticed the reflection of the Civic Opera Building in Helmut Jahn’s One South Wacker from 1982. I became fascinated with the distortion create by the reflection in the glass, and you guessed it, I had to pull my camera out.
Samuel Insull’s Civic Opera House on Wacker Drive is an early example of mixed-use buildings, combining an opera house with an office tower. Completed in 1929 on the eve of the great depression, the grand opening featured Aida just six days after the stock market crash.
It was while shooting the previous shot that the security guard (below center) came over and informed me that the building does not allow photographs to be taken of it. Of course, if you challenge me with such absurd stupidity, I will only push the matter. I informed him that I am standing on the sidewalk, which is a public right of way, and that there was absolutely nothing he could do to prevent me from taking photos of his building. To which he replied that the building does not allow photographs to be taken of it.
What the security guard didn’t know was that up to that point, I wasn’t taking pictures of the building that he was protecting specifically, only the reflection on his precious building.
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After the encounter with the guard, I was (of course) compelled to spend the next fifteen minutes standing on the sidewalk taking photos of 1 S Wacker, just to annoy him. I wandered up and down the sidewalk on both Madison and Wacker shooting photos, while he followed me to ensure I wasn’t stepping on his property. Those images; I will save for a future post.