Chicago gives you ‘skyscraper neck’ but you can’t stop looking up

Chicago – a visual feast

The Railway Exchange Building 0f 1904, home of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, among others

Reliance Building, 1895 – so beautifully light and elegant

Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate

The ‘El’ – the wonderful, archaic elevated railway that defines Chicago’s Loop

The largest Tiffany-glass dome in the world, Chicago Cultural Center

The Tiffany dome, Chicago Cultural Center

You can really see the Japanese influence on Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings…

Happiness is a Frank Lloyd Wright house…

The Robie House sails along the street…

FLW’s 1906 Unity Temple – a visual feast

Crown Hall, IIT – Mies’ 1956 masterpiece is even better in the metal.

A typical Mies corner, IIT – architecture as couture

Mies’ face is imprinted on the entrance doors of Rem Koolhaas’ student refectory, Illinois Institute of Technology

The leafy streets of Lincoln Park, Chicago

John Hancock Tower pokes through sea mist from Lake Michigan

In June this year I visited Chicago for the first time. Having studied its buildings at university all those years ago, it was a wonderful experience to see these buildings in the flesh. I just kept having to remind myself that so many of these were built in the last years of the nineteenth century. They’re true stars of the architectural design world.