Tours
Green in the Loop 1909-2009: The Hallowe’en Edition
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009
Time: 5:46 PM - 7:00 PM (starts promply at sunset)
Location: Daley Plaza, Washington St & Dearborn St (meet at Picasso sculpture)
Contact us to arrange a tour for your group
Introduction
Buy tickets
A city is made of more than monuments
What can I expect from this tour?
Tour details
Testimonials & Shoutouts
Your guide
Press
The view skywards from the Blue Line stairs at Jackson and Dearborn Streets, before an ominous, shadowy figure overtook the photographer, who was never seen nor heard from again.
Introduction
We’ve forgotten about what made buildings green 100 years ago - AND THAT’S JUST PLAIN SCARY!
In the early 20th century, architects and engineers did not depend entirely upon the highly advanced technologies we take for granted today. While newer advances such as electric light, elevators, and steel were increasingly used, buildings still relied heavily on tried and true engineering, design, and planning principles - locally-sourced materials, balancing structural redundancy with efficiency, on-site or local power generation, naturally lit and ventilated spaces, and civic responsibility.
Learning from past achievements will help illuminate the way toward truly sustainable cities, and may insure the dead do not rise to exact their revenge upon us.
(Please purchase tickets by 5:00pm the previous Friday.)
Tickets are $25.00 each and can be purchased online via PayPal
A city is made of more than monuments
These buildings are worthy of study.
Why?
Because they still stand.
They still stand because they were well-made, they work, and we love them.
These are testaments to their value.
From buildings designed by some of the world’s greatest architects to lesser-known gems, however, it is important to understand how a living city works (and worked) by learning about buildings in the fabric of the city of which they are a part, rather than as isolated monuments.
That said, our buildings are also repositories of the memories and experiences of those who came before. And they’re NOT happy with what we’ve done in the years since they passed on.
Hear their stories.
What can I expect from this tour?
This is not an exhaustive historical tour.
It is, however, an unusual hybrid of a ‘green’ architecture tour and a ghost walk. I defy you to find anything else quite like it anywhere.
Names of architects, exact dates, exact building weight and height… all fun facts, but not the point. Those may be found online or any number of excellent publications on Chicago architecture.
You will not be quizzed.
You WILL be afraid. VERY afraid.
This tour is about experiencing buildings in their context, seeing how they are used, have been adapted, and imaging how they once were and might be again.
My intent is for you to leave this tour with a greater appreciation for the fundamentals of what make our buildings relevant.
Buildings you will see include:
Delaware Building
Hotel Burnham (form. Reliance Building)
Chicago Cultural Center (form. Chicago Public Central Library)
Monadnock Building
We look forward to having you along!
Tour details
Type: Walking
Skill level: Moderate (stairs, brisk pace)
Distance: 2 miles, approximate
Suitable for: Ages 18 and up
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Limit: 45 people
Notes: Ticket sales are final and nonrefundable.
Weather: This tour will run rain, shine, snow, and/or wind!
Testimonials & Shoutouts
“This tour scared the CRAP out of me.
It is simply FRIGHTENING how we almost forgot how to design buildings that worked WITH rather than AGAINST their environment.
I thought the maudlin ghost stories he told along with the great sustainability facts were really unique.”
- E.A. Poe, gentleman from Abroad
“Dave is no Richard Crowe, but a tour that starts at sunset and highlights both the haunted past of our city and explains how buildings work is a tour worth taking!”
- V. Tepes, from Transylvania
“It was pretty fun and always nice to learn a few more things about this fascinating city. Oh, and the bloodcurdling screams emanating from The Monadnock Building were pretty cool too.”
- B. Karlov, from Palos Heights
City of Chicago’s Official Tourism Site
Ideal Bite
Your guide
Local architect and storyteller Dave Hampton, principal of Hampton Avery Architects and a co-founder of Urban Habitat Chicago will lead this tour.
His projects include the New Orleans Global Green Competition, the Bronzeville rehab, sustainable strategies for residences near Tokyo, living walls with Repkin Biosystems, the Red Line, Green Roof Initiative with the 48th Ward, and other high-performance, energy-efficient building retrofits.
Dave holds a B. Arch from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech, holds architectural licenses in Illinois and North Carolina, is a LEED Accredited Professional, is a Passive House™ Certified Consultant, is a leader in advocating for building deconstruction and materials reuse as an alternative to demolition in Chicago, and has been an honorary member of the Undead since 1994.
He also holds audiences captive, backed by over three generations of family history telling ghost stories.
Press
Tour de Force, Ideal Bite
Time Out Chicago