This is the first post of our blog for Chicago. We will be leaving on Saturday, 5 June and coming back on 31 August to Brussels. About 3 months in the US of A.
Why the name "What's the weather down there"? (purists would have added a "like" after weather, but it sounds better this way, you know, with rhythm, like in hip-hop). Well... I was once told that people who live in the upper floors of the John Hancock Center in downtown Chicago have to call the concierge in the lobby to find out what the weather is like at street level. Up there, surrounded by "eternal (ethereal?) clouds", the building's inhabitants don't ever know what to wear.
The TV show host presenter, Oprah Winfrey, has an apartment in the Center. I mean, a huge apartment. I can picture her calling the concierge and popping the question non-chalantly every morning and thinking, what jacket to wear, shall I take a scarf or a feathery boa?
The Center is the second tallest building in Chicago and was completed in 1969. It was an original project by the architect firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The construction was financed by the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, hence the name. Chicagoans also call the building "Big John". It's an imposing structure. That black aluminium grid crisscrossing the façade all the way to the sky leaves you in awe when you stand at the bottom of the building.
In the birthplace of sky-skrapers there couldn't be a better way to start this blog. I hope the weather down there will be sunny and of a happy disposition.
(L)
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