A week during September, myself, along with a group of Interior Design, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Construction Management students got to travel to Chicago to see first hand some of the historical sites that we have previously learned about. This experience was one of the best I've had. I love the big city and all the excitement and opportunity it had to offer.
Pre-departure, I worked with other disciplines to research about the history of a site in Chicago where we would present to ours peers. Working with the other disciplines was a good experience too as we had
to learn to work together to find a time to all meet and complete the
poster.My site was City Target, and at first I was really nervous about presenting to a large group but as I was talking, random by-passers stopped to listen to what I had to say. Seeing many sites in person such as The Rookery, The Harold Washington Steel Building, The Millenium Monument, Crown Fountain, Lurie Gardens, and The Railway Exchange, just to name a few was so amazing rather than just hearing about them in class.
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| Millennium Park |
I never imagined the scale and masive size of these buildings until I was up and personal with them. Mixed with the busyness of the city life was definatly an experience I will not soon forget.
On our "discipline days," I toured SOM (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill) Architecture Firm and toured several showrooms at the Merchandise Mart. Visiting both these sites were eye opening to the possibilities of this industry, from textile design at DesignTex, international building with SOM, and office furniture systems at Herman Miller. These businesses got me so excited and motivitated to see what my future holds.
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| Herman Miller Showroom |
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| Design TEX Showrom |
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Other excursion sites that were memorable were the Farnsworth House and Frank Llyod Wright's Home and Studio. Both sites are so iconic to the history of design, I just felt so lucky to see them in person. I fell in love with the neighborhood in which Frank Lllyod Wright's home was, it was so unique, clean, and so many design styles within a short area.
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| Frank Llyod Wright's Home and Studio |
And the Farnsworth House was a great site to see in that such a simplistic house was so controversial. Both places a piece of history I am glad to say I got to visit.
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| Farnsworth House |
A few of my favorite excursions throughout the city was the John Hancock Observatory, night city boat tour, and The Bean in Millennium Park. The weather was pretty bi polar, while in the John Hancock Observatory, one night it was too foggy to go, and the next night there was lighting that we could see right in front of us. This building was amazing, the height was a bit scary at first, but the views were amazing and even better at night. On the boat tour, we traveled on the small river through the city then into the lake where we got to see the whole city lit up. And when we were supposed to take a group photo at The Bean, the weather was so bad they made everyone leave the site and we had to come back at another time.
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| John Hancock Observatory |
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| City Boat Tour at Night |
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| Millennium Park "The Bean" |
The culture was an experience to take in, born and raised in eastern Washington was kind of a shock of lifestyles. I walked more than ever, and instead of driving to a far place I took the monorail, a normal commute for the big city was new to me. Not to mention trying to navigate the city and leave early enough so I would be on time. It was eye opening to see how people in different parts of the country live everyday and makes me more motivated to travel and visit more historical sites.
The last full day in Chicago we had a free day, me and my friends ventured across town to go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. This was the first major league baseball game I had ever been to and I could not believe how big the stadium was or how many people were there! After the game, we did some window shopping at Tiffany's and Burberry, as well as some more reasonable shopping.
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| Wrigley Field |
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| Downtown with friends |
Overall, I am so glad I got the opportunity to take this study tour. I learned so much more about the city and the sites that I could not have learned just from being taught. I think all students should travel and get to visit historical sites in their education and I had such great faculty to guide me and lead me through the tour.
