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Cloudgate, also known as The Bean, is a popular Chicago tourist attraction in Millennium Park. Inspired by liquid mercury, the structure is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates and stands 33 feet long. I took this photo the summer of 2006 when I lived in The Loop. Normally this plaza is swarming with people. As you can see, not many tourists at 8am on a Sunday morning!
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A beloved building on the campus of Notre Dame, the Main Building serves primarily as a headquarters for administration, although it still contains classrooms, harking back to a time when students learned, ate meals, and resided there. It was built in 1879 and the Golden Dome was added in 1882, most recently regilded in 2005 (right before I attended MBA school). The regilding process uses only about a fist-full of gold leaf to cover the entire structure. On top of the Dome is a 19-foot-tall, 4,000-pound statue of Mary, the Mother of God, “Notre Dame” (“Our Lady”).
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The former Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank, built in 1942, is now a Westin hotel. According to Wikipedia, the bank’s boardroom on the 10th floor, with floor-to-ceiling windows, is now a conference room. The original bankt vault on the lower level is also a conference room, while the former safety deposit vault is now a wine vault and the entire bank has been made in to a restaurant, called B.A.N.K. The restaurant kept as much of the original woodworking as possible. Former offices now serve as private dining rooms and the teller counter now serves as a bar. On my list of places to visit? Yes, you can bank on it.
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This joins the other shoe post from this year.
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