City on Fire

Snared
Originally uploaded by Michael DaKidd

Every time I take the Metra into Chicago, my breathe starts to catch in my throat as I approach the downtown area. Architecture has not always attracted me as it does now. As a matter of fact, I'm not quite sure when it became such an obsession for me. I don't recall being very absorbed with it in high school, but when I arrived at college it felt as if an appreciation for beautiful buildings was already there. Perhaps the times that my dad would point out residential homes that he loved during long drives through the suburbs, paired with my love for photography jump-started my obsession.

Anyways, back to Chicago. Wow. I normally am a bit old-fashioned in the forms of architecture I prefer, at least in residential forms, but I LOVE the beauty of glass and steel and concrete found on Chicago's streets. My neck aches by the end of a day spent walking through Chicago.

This feeling is especially felt when I see Chicago at night. After spending most of my life in the quiet suburbs, where only a patch of lawn is lit with a lamppost, or perhaps the door is illuminated by one bulb, the way that the buildings themselves stand out against the sky at night never ceases to make my breathe catch.

If you have ever seen Chicago during the Christmas season, it is an especially mesmerizing place, especially on Michigan Avenue. Christmas lights make the trees seem other-worldly as you walk underneath them, and the lights of buildings lining the street across from Millennium Park seem to match the incredible magic of the season.

Heh. I'm even more dramatic than usual. Chicago just makes me really inspired and excited and exhilarated.

(By the way, the first picture on this post is another steal from flickr posted by Michael Dakidd. It should say so directly underneath the picture, but it's not showing up for some reason, at least not on my computer.)