2018

Chicago’s "MDA Building" is one of those downtown buildings few have heard of but that has its own interesting history. Designed by Daniel Burnham, Jr. and completed in 1927, it’s 24 floors, 290-feet high. Originally known as the Medical and Dental Arts Building, it was home to both the Chicago Dental Society and the Chicago Medical Society, as well as a larger roster of doctors and dentists. In October of 1939, it was the site of the first meeting of the Chicago chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Their 1940 New Year’s Eve party was noted as featuring a "large assortment of sobered up piano players." The Chicago Literary Club, founded in 1874, moved to the 22nd floor as a cheaper alternative to their previous lodgings in the Fine Arts Building, and the same floor was the site of 10 cent lectures sponsored by the Marxist publication The New Masses in the 1930’s. In 1929, the Tribune reported that Mrs. Benjamin Baskin gave birth to a baby boy in one of the elevators. Hopefully, the building’s large population of doctors included least one obstetrician. Over time, the structure evolved into a more traditional office building, and was known for the rather ugly paint job on its top floor facades. In 2003, the building, renamed MDA City Apartments, underwent a $45 million upgrade by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture that saw the offices converted to 190 luxury rental units, with an outlet of the Elephant and Castle restaurant chain on the first floor of the limestone clad base, which also includes an Artisan Pastoral Cheese Shop.

The Chicago L is now 125 years old. This network of elevated trains and subways is how Chicagoans get around. But it’s also an iconic symbol of the city. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many American cities used elevated trains to transport their residents. In most cities, those elevated systems were eventually replaced by subways. While Chicago has two subway lines, the majority of its trains are either elevated or at grade (at ground level). Today, Chicago is the only city in the U.S. that still has elevated trains in its downtown area.

The curved building in the left foreground is the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

The "Gentlemen" are a set of bronze statues created by the Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming and installed in 2015 in the AMA Plaza. The sculpture is blocky and minimalist, Ming’s signature style, reducing the figures to their basic forms.

The Trump International Hotel and Tower is a skyscraper condo-hotel in downtown Chicago, Illinois. The building, named after businessman and current U.S. President Donald Trump was designed by architect Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Bovis Lend Lease built the 98-story structure, which reaches a height of 1,388 feet (423.2 m) including its spire, its roof topping out at 1,171 feet (357 m). It is next to the main branch of the Chicago River, with a view of the entry to Lake Michigan beyond a series of bridges over the river. The building received publicity when the winner of the first season of The Apprentice reality television show, Bill Rancic, chose to manage the construction of the tower over managing a new Trump National Golf Course and resort in Los Angeles. Trump announced in 2001 that the skyscraper would become the tallest building in the world, but after the September 11 attacks that same year, he scaled back the building’s plans, and its design underwent several revisions. When topped out in 2009, it became the fourth-tallest building in the US. It surpassed the city’s John Hancock Center as the building with the highest residence (apartment or condo) in the world, and briefly held this title until the completion of the Burj Khalifa. The design of the building includes, from the ground up, retail space, a parking garage, a hotel and condominiums. The 339-room hotel opened for business with limited accommodations and services on January 30, 2008, then full accommodation and services on April 28. The building topped out in late 2008 and construction was completed in 2009. As of 2015, the hotel is among three in Chicago with an elite five-star Forbes Travel Guide rating. Sixteen was one of five restaurants in Chicago with at least a Michelin Guide two-star rating in 2016 and one of three five-star Forbes-rated restaurants in the city until it closed in 2018. The spa is one of six with at least a four-star Forbes rating in the Chicago area in 2015.