Feature Image: December 2015. Beaux-Arts elevator bank (1907). Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago. 6.20 mb DSC_0617 (1). Author’s photograph.
The initial North Tower was built in 1893 during The World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago from May 1 to October 31, 1893. It was built by famed developer R.H. Southgate and designed by Clinton J. Warren (1860-1938), a leading young hotel designer in the city. Warren moved to Chicago from Massachusetts in 1879 and the next year joined the firm of Burnham and Root. When he left the firm in 1886 to start his own firm he designed a long list of Chicago hotels. These included The Virginia Hotel (1889–1890), a ten-story building on the northwest corner of Ohio and Rush Streets, The Metropole Hotel (1891) an eight-story building on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street, The Plaza Hotel (1891–1992) at 1553 N. Clark Street at the southeast corner of Clark and North Avenue, The Lexington Hotel (1892) at 22nd and Michigan Avenue and The Auditorium Annex/Congress Hotel at 504 S. Michigan Avenue (1893), which is today The Congress Plaza Hotel. By 1900 Warren returned to Boston, Massachusetts, and died in San Diego, California, in 1938, by then his active years as an architect in Chicago obscured. His obituary in the New York Times failed to mention Warren’s training with Daniel Burnham, his influence on Chicago architecture by way of numerous prominent buildings over two decades in the city nor his work’s association to Al Capone by way of the gangster’s moving his headquarters to the Lexington Hotel in 1928 until 1931. Warren’s NYT obituary reads in full: “Clinton J. Warren SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 17 (AP). – Clinton J. Warren, architect, who designed buildings in Europe, Mexico and Eastern United States, died at his home here last night at the age of 80. Mr. Warren formerly lived in Winchester, Mass. His widow and two sons, Clinton Jay Jr. of San Francisco and John of New York, survive.” see – TimesMachine: March 18, 1938 – NYTimes.com and The Chicago Hotels of Architect Clinton J. Warren – Owlcation – retrieved February 22, 2026.
December 2015. Beaux-Arts elevator bank, 504 S. Michigan Avenue (1907), Chicago. 3.99mb DSC_0958 (2). Author’s photograph.
Originally named the Auditorium Annex it opened in 1893 to swarms of tourists and has remained open in this role continuously since to today (and is famous for its ghost hauntings). The Auditorium Annex became the closest major hotel at the time to two large train stations: Dearborn Station and Illinois Central Station both five blocks away. It was also the southernmost major hotel in Downtown Chicago and just a block and a half away from the elevated train station that took visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in Jackson Park. The gold elevator bank, featuring ornate gilded, Beaux-Arts styling, is located within the South Tower of the Congress Plaza Hotel, added between 1902 and 1907 designed by architects Holabird & Roche. see – Holabird & Roche. See- Chicago Landmarks – Architect Details – retrieved February 22, 2026.
William Holabird (1854-1923) and Martin Roche (1855-1927) of the architectural firm of Holabird & Roche that designed the South Tower of today’s Congress Plaza Hotel between 1902 and 1907. Public Domain.
This addition includes a luxurious banquet hall called the “Gold Room.” By 1908, the hotel had over 1,000 guest rooms and, in 1911, changed its name to the Congress Hotel inspired by its location on Congress Parkway (today’s Ida B. Wells Drive) and across from Grant Park. Several U.S. presidents have stayed in the Congress Hotel and could have used these golden elevators including Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding, and Calvin Coolidge. See – Congress Plaza Hotel History | Congress Plaza Hotel – retrieved February 22, 2026.
ROSA LEE: I LOVE YOU, YOU KNOW? EVERY NIGHT WHEN I SAY MY PRAYERS AND I THANK THE LORD FOR HIS BLESSINGS AND HIS TENDER MERCIES TO ME, YOU AND SONNY HEAD THE LIST. Tender Mercies – 11. “Blessings and Tender Mercies” – retrieved February 16, 2026.
Robert Duvall died February 15, 2026, at his home in Middleburg, Virginia, at 95 it was announced February 16. In Tender Mercies, a 1983 American drama film set in Texas, Robert Duvall played washed-up country singer Mac Sledge in a performance that won that year’s Academy Award for Best Actor. In this scene, Duvall’s friend, Wilford Brimley, played Harry, Mac’s former manager, and Tess Harper played a widow named Rosa Lee who develops feelings for Mac. Coming off a bitter break up with his wife Dixie Lee, a superstar country singer, who won’t let her ex-alcoholic husband near herself or their grown daughter, Mac, a once legendary country music star in his own right, lives and works quietly at a gas station operated by Rosa Lee who lives with her young son. As Mac tries to rebuild both his career and life on the Texas badlands, he finds he has keener, if less flashy, success with the latter. Nominated for 5 Academy Awards, Tender Mercies also won Oscar for Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen (Horton Foote). In his 60-year film career, Duvall made scores of films, receiving seven Academy Award nominations in the process. Duvall also received four Golden Globe Awards. From his film debut in 1962 as Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird, Duvall appeared in some of the most iconic feature films of his era and in iconic roles both on screen and behind the camera as producer, writer and director. Notable film titles include: True Grit (1969), M*A*S*H (1970), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Great Santini (1979), Tender Mercies (1983), The Natural (1984), The Apostle (1997), Open Range (2003), and Wild Horses (2015). At 91 years old, Duvall’s final film, The Pale Blue Eye, was released 60 years after his first, in 2022.
Robert Duvall played Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, a 1979 war film directed by Francis (Ford) Coppola. Commanding the 1st Battalion, 9th Air Cavalry Regiment during the Vietnam War, Kilgore is depicted as an adrenaline-fueled “gung-ho” officer who embodies the insanity of the war. (6) Apocalypse Now UHD (1979) – Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (1/11) | 4K Clips – YouTube – retrieved February 16, 2026.
Based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) is one of the greatest films of all time. Robert Duvall plays cool-headed Tom Hagen, the Irish-German consigliere and lawyer for the Corleone crime family. Since youth Hagen was unofficially adopted into the New York-based Italian American family by the Godfather, Vito Corleone. Hagen is dispatched to Hollywood by the Godfather to secure a film role for Johnny Fontaine, a singer and Vito’s godson, and produced by Jack Woltz (John Marley). When Woltz refuses Tom Hagen’s first offer for Johnny to star in his picture, and Tom Hagen returns to New York, the Godfather makes the reluctant film producer a second offer he can’t refuse.
Feature Image: October 2015. Chicago. 5.85mb DSCN1452 (1). Author’s photograph.
October 2016. Chicago 4.90mb DSC_0104 (1)
Chicago skyline from Museum Campus promontory (Northerly Island).
October 2015. Chicago. 5.85mb DSCN1452 (1). Author’s photograph.
Wacker Drive and Wabash Avenue looking east, Chicago. From left: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009). Trump Tower Chicago is a 98-story skyscraper at 401 N Wabash Ave, completed in 2009. Rising 1,389 feet with its spire, it includes 486 condos, a 339-room hotel, and ranks as the 4th tallest building in the United States.
401 N Michigan Avenue (Equitable Building), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1965/Facelift 1992/Renovation 2016). The plaza (Pioneer Court) of the Miesian 401 N. Michigan draws over 22,000 pedestrians daily from busy Michigan Avenue. Apple’s global flagship store shares the plaza that provides immediate access to the Riverwalk via the Spanish Steps. see – 401 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 – Office for Lease | LoopNet – retrieved February 13, 2026.
360 N. Michigan Avenue (London Guarantee & Accident Building), Alfred S. Alschuler, architect (1923).
85 E. Wacker Drive (London House).
75 E. Wacker (formerly Lincoln Tower, originally Mather Tower), Herbert Hugh Riddle, architect (1928) and Harry Weese & Assocs. (Renovation/1983).
71 E. Wacker Drive (The Royal Sonesta Chicago Downtown, formerly Executive House Hotel), Milton Schwartz, architect (1959). 71 E. Wacker Drive is the first high-rise hotel in Chicago since the Great Depression. see – Executive House Hotel, 71 E. Wacker, Chicago – retrieved February 13, 2026.
May 2015. Chicago. 99% 7.92mb DSC_0468. Author’s photograph.
Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street looking west on Van Buren, Chicago. Left: Chicago Club, 81. E. Van Buren, Granger & Bollenbacher, architect (1929).
Right: CNA Center (333 S. Wabash Avenue), Graham, Anderson, Probst, architect (1972).
Near background: 333 S. State, DePaul Center (formerly Goldblatt’s, originally Rothschild & Co. Store), Holabird & Roche, architect (1912), renovation 1993.
Far background: Fisher Building (343 S. Dearborn Street), D.H. Burnham & Co., architect (1896) and Northern Addition, Peter J. Weber, architect (1907). Restoration and adaptive Reuse, 2001.
October 2015. Chicago. 4.28mb DSC_0061 (1) Author’s photograph.
Adams and Dearborn Streets looking north along Dearborn, Chicago. Left: 55 Xerox Center, 55 West Monroe, Chicago, Helmut Jahn, architect (1977-1980). Behind (partially hidden): Chase Tower (originally First National Bank of Chicago), Perkins & Will; C.F. Murphy Assocs. (1969).
Background: 2 N. State/1 N. Dearborn Streets (originally, Boston Store), Holabird & Roche (1906; 1917), renovation (2001).
November 2015. Chicago. 3.77mb DSC_0384 (1). Author’s photograph.
Halsted Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard looking east, Chicago. Union Station Tower (MidAmerica Commodity Exchange), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1971). Willis Tower (originally, Sears Tower), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1974).
December 2015. Chicago. 2.40mb DSC_0577 (2). Author’s photograph.
Balbo and Wabash Avenues looking north on Wabash. Left: (with Columbia College wall sign) 33 Ida B. Wells Drive building, Alfred S. Alschuler, architect, (1925/1926). DePaul University College of Law, 25 E. Jackson and, beyond, 230 S. Wabash, a 21-story building built in 1910.
Center: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009).
At right: Roosevelt University: Auditorium Building, Adler & Sullivan, architect (1887-1889) and The Wabash Building, a 32-story zigzagging glass structure, Christopher Groesbeck, AIA, architect (2012). CNA Center (333 S. Wabash Avenue), Graham, Anderson, Probst, architect (1972).
December 2015. Chicago 3.60mb DSC_0986 (2)
From left: Old Colony Building, 407 S. Dearborn Street, Holabird & Roche, architect (1894), Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center, 71 W. Van Buren Street, Harry Weese & Associates (1975), Fisher Building, 342 S. Dearborn Street, D.H. Burnham, architect (1896) and Northern Addition, Peter Weber, architect (1907) and Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1974).
July 2016. Chicago 5.33mb DSC_0743 (1)
Lincoln Park looking over South Pond towards downtown. At left: (partial view) Water Tower Place, 845 N. Michigan Avenue, Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl, architect (1976); John Hancock Building, 875 N. Michigan Avenue, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1969); 900 North Michigan Avenue, Kohn Pedersen Fox, architect (1989); Park Tower, 800 N. Michigan Avenue, Lucien LaGrange & Assoc., architect (2000); The Aon Center (formerly, Amoco Building; originally, Standard Oil Building), 200 E. Randolph Street, Edward Durell Stone; Perkins & Will, architects (1973); Trump International Hotel and Tower, Adrian Smith, architect (2009); At right: James House, 1560 North Sandburg Terrace, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, architect (1971).
July 2016. Chicago. 3.28 mb DSC_0045 (1)
Looking north on Wabash Avenue from Randolph Street, the Chicago elevated train follows a north-south route along Wabash Avenue and has been part of downtown since the late 1890’s. The “Kemper” sign is on the relatively dull modernist Kemper Building, now One East Wacker, Shaw, Metz & Assoc., architect (1962). Followed by 35 East Wacker Drive (formerly Pure Oil Building; originally, Jewelers Building) with its distinctive dome, Glaver & Dinkelberg; Thielbar & Fugard, Assoc. Archs., architect (1926). Partial view is Trump Tower.
September 2016. Chicago.3.89mb DSC_0740 (1)
Right to left: The 233 E. Wacker Drive building (known as Columbus Plaza) in Chicago is 48-story apartment building, Fujikawa Conterato Lohan and Associates, architect (1978-1980). The 111 E. Wacker Drive building (known as One Illinois Center) in Chicago, is a 30-story Modernist building featuring bronze anodized aluminum and dark-tinted glass, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in association with Joseph Fujikawa, architect (1967-1970). The Swissôtel Chicago at 323 E. Wacker Drive, is a 45-story, triangular, all-glass luxury hotel, Harry Weese and Associates, architect (1989). The 345 E. Wacker Drive building (known as Coast at Lakeshore East) in Chicago is a 40-story residential apartment tower, bKL Architecture LLC, architect (2013).
September 2016. Chicago. 4.93mb DSC_0745 (1)
From the Riverwalk looking north along N. St. Clair Street: at right, the 27-story spandrel glass and metal panel 633 N. St Clair St. building, Loebl Schlossman [later; Dart] & Hackl, architect (1991). At left, the 63-story pinkish, rose-hued Swedish granite 161 Chicago Avenue East building (known as Olympia Centre) is a mixed-use retail, office, and residential skyscraper, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1984-85). At right, the 74-story gray marble facade Water Tower Place, the first vertical shopping center on Michigan Avenue (8 floors), also includes the Ritz-Carlton hotel, luxury condos, and office space, Edward D. Dart (Loebl Schlossman Bennett and Dart), architect (1975). The John Hancock Center—now officially 875 North Michigan Avenue—is a 100‑story, tapered mixed‑use skyscraper known for its iconic X‑bracing. Often described as a “vertical city,” it is considered one of the first major mixed‑use skyscrapers in the world and includes office space (floors 13–41), about 700 condominiums (floors 44–92), and the highest indoor swimming pool in North America on the 44th floor. Its 94th‑floor observation deck offers panoramic views of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Bruce Graham of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, architect (1969). It was engineered by Fazlur Rahman Khan, who pioneered the tubular structural system used in the tower.
September 2016. Chicago. 5.06mb DSC_0756 (2)
The Carbide and Carbon Building rises from 230 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago like a gleaming Art Deco toast to the Jazz Age, Burnham Brothers, architect (1929). The 37‑story tower is instantly recognizable: its base wrapped in polished black granite, its shaft clad in deep green terra cotta, and its crown shimmering with 24‑karat gold leaf. Legend has it the architects shaped the building to resemble a champagne bottle — a fitting symbol for a city that never stopped celebrating its own ambition.
