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Native American dancer,
Tuscon, Arizona
ART AND ARCHITECTURE Chicago Cultural Centre’s Preston Bradley
America’s cities are celebrated for their grand Hall, has just undergone a $2.2 million
architecture. Iconic buildings grace many metro- restoration. Originally opened as the first
politan skylines. The most notable include New Chicago Public Library in 1897, the building’s
York’s Art Deco Chrysler Building and soaring dome measures 38ft in diameter and has
Empire State Building, Chicago’s even taller Sears 30,000 pieces of glass in a cast-iron frame.
Tower and white terracotta-clad Wrigley Building, Regarded as America’s greatest architect,
and Washington’s classically-styled Capitol. Frank Lloyd Wright began his career in the
Art lovers are well catered for, from venerable Chicago suburb Oak Park. Tours of the district
institutions such as New York’s Metropolitan feature 27 Wright-designed buildings, including
Museum of Art and the Frank Lloyd Wright- his home and studio. In a recent poll, Chicago
designed Guggenheim, to the eclectic collections came top in a list of the best US cities for
of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Hearst architecture and design.
Castle near San Simeon, California. New York came second. Besides the Empire
Chicago has had a huge influence on US State, Chrysler Building and the Guggenheim,
architecture. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 other icons include the Woolworth and Flatiron
which devastated much of the city gave architects buildings, Pennsylvania Station, the Statue of
a blank canvas, and they made full use of it. It led Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge.
the way with skyscrapers of steel-framed buildings Boston, with its collection of historic city-
clad with plate glass, a design style known as the centre buildings, ranked third and Los Angeles was The Tiffany Dome (and
Chicago School. The Home Insurance Building, fourth. Its highlights include the bizarrely-shaped detail), Chicago
built in 1885 and demolished in 1931, was the first Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank
modern skyscraper using structural steel. Gehry and opened in 2003. Oregon capital
The later International School embraced the Portland came fifth in this poll, and is a gem with
skyscraper concept and sent buildings soaring ever its many preserved old buildings, some clad in
upwards – if with less flourish. A good way to see glazed terracotta. Its Pioneer Courthouse is the
Chicago’s buildings, both historic and new, is to oldest federal building in the Pacific north-west.
take a 90-minute narrated architectural cruise on www.kuoni.co.uk
the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Cocktail www.thomson.co.uk
cruises run on summer evenings. www.virginholidays.co.uk
The world’s largest Tiffany glass dome, in the www.travelpack.com
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go to www.ttglive.com
TTG Knowledge USA October 2008
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