September 30, 2011 · 7:02 pm

A way to step foot inside one of my favorite new Chicago buildings – the Aqua building

I have long admired Jeanne Gang’s Aqua Building – ever since we glided by it on an Chicago Architectural Foundation boat tour along the Chicago River several years ago. Now comes word that I can get to see it up close and personal when the new Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel opens on 11/1/11 at 221 North Columbus Drive. The hotel will take up 18 floors of Gang’s 81-story tower with its distinctive white wavy-gravy balconies. By the by, I learned in an interview with Gang in the NYT that those  smooth white curved-floor balconies, irregularly shaped to create the rippled effect,  are not only for cool effect  but cool purpose – to produce energy savings. Each balcony doubles as solar shade for the room or apartment below – and interrupt the breezes whipping off the lake so balconies on higher floors are feasible. Not for nothing did Gang,a Chicago native,  recently receive a MacArthur genius award.

 

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September 29, 2011 · 1:10 am

Hints for Hawaii

Time to start gathering string for our trip to Hawaii in January. YES!

A friend emailed from there the other day with these suggestions: this is my fifth time here. I love it. Oahu, Maui and the Big Island are my favorites. Lots to see on Oahu: Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, North Shore where the waves are much bigger, Dole plantation. You will have a blast. Stay as long as you can because it’s a long flight. We are on Kauai, Maui and Oahu on this 10-day trip. Aloha!

Also read in AAA magazine that it’s possible to find low key interesting b&Bs on the Big Island for about $150 a night. I’d love to find something akin to Panama’s laid-back hippish Bocas Del Toro in Hawaii.

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September 24, 2011 · 3:58 am

Heaven on Seven in chicago – and Bookbinder’s soup on North Rush

So we’re at a party in Des Moines, talking to some people who used to live in Chicago and they go on and on about their favorite Cajun restaurant in Chicago, “behind Marshall Fields.”  So I find out from my sister in Oak Park that the restaurant, Heaven on Seven, is an old favorite and that my stepdaughter works nearby and that my meeting downtown is nearby so we have a luncheon date – my sister, stepdaughter and me last week at Heaven on Seven. I was initially confused by the name – given that it’s on Wabash. But darned if it isn’t tucked on the seventh floor of an old office building. And it was full of character and served a mean gumbo. Do wish they took something other than cash but whatever. I’ll be back. (The next day I happened to pass by a newer branch near Michigan Avenue.)

We also had a nice lunch at Gibson’s on North Rush – at an outdoor table set back from the street with an awning to block the growing chill and wind. Nothing fancy – tuna salad stuffed in an avocado and five bean soup. My aunt had  a thick chowder that hails from Philly’s famous restaurant Bookbinder’s. I couldn’t quite tell what’s in it but Wikipedia suggests it may be snapper soup, i.e. made with turtle meat. Really?

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September 23, 2011 · 12:53 am

Sometimes a restaurant can be a little too hip – chicago

So we tried out Urban Belly, this hipster spot in  the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago and although I appreciated what these young creative types were trying to do – to offer affordable innovative Asian food in a minimalist setting – the taste of the food just wasn’t all that good. Otherwise, the concept and atmospherics were okay – It’s a small storefront next to a laundromat in an unlikely little strip mall in an old neighborhood that seemed to now be primarily Hispanic and young creative (read penniless) class types. There were a few long wooden tables with square blocks of wood as seat. You order at the counter and then stake out a spot at a communal table. All fine. The food- we had chicken and mushroom dumplings, a cold marinated eggplant, short ribs (supposedly) atop rice, and udon noodles with fishballs and shrimp – was dominated by a sweet seasoning which didn’t do much for me. I prefer salty or savory or short of that, variety.

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September 20, 2011 · 1:57 am

Chicago restaurants to try….

I found myself taking six 19-year-olds out for lunch in Evanston, Illinois – upon my son’s return to Northwestern – which i was happy to do. But even happier when we went to Dixie’s – a fun Cajun place – that has a very parent-friendly menu of $6.95 lunch specials – including a good southwestern salad with grilled chicken, beans, corn salsa and a light creamy dressing and a sampler with little bowls of gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice.
Now onto Chicago where E has these restaurants in mind:
This place is supposed to be great too, owned by the same people:
A combo of Asian and Mexican.

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September 18, 2011 · 3:29 pm

milwaukee – serbian food, sausages, santiago calatrava

Friends are going to Milwaukee for a college visit to Marquette U. so here are a few suggestions of things to do/see/eat:

– Three Brothers – a Old World Serbian restaurant in a neighborhood just north of the airport. Yes Serbian food. Good. Try the burek, sort of akin to Greek spinach and cheese pie

– The Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Santiago Calatrava. The building alone – looking like bird landing on the lake – is worth a wander. There’s an exhibit on the building of the museum, marking its 10th anniversary. (more below)

– Usinger’s Sausages – okay, you don’t have to go to the original store downtown but it’s kind of a kick. there’s a stand selling them at the Milwaukee Airport.

 

 

Building a Masterpiece: Santiago Calatrava and the Milwaukee Art Museum

September 8, 2011–January 1, 2012

Feature image for the Calatrava exhibition It has been named the sexiest building in the world, featured in TV ads and shows and Hollywood movies, and it has transformed the city of Milwaukee. In September, the Milwaukee Art Museum celebrates the 10th anniversary of its iconic building, the Quadracci Pavilion, with the exhibition Building a Masterpiece: Santiago Calatrava and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Designed by internationally renowned architect Santiago Calatrava, the Quadracci Pavilion was the Spaniard’s first completed commission in the United States. In 2001, it was named Time Magazine’s “Best Design of 2001.”

 

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September 16, 2011 · 2:53 pm

Mass MOCA – for huge art!

Last week, we thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (aka Mass MOCA) in the old factory town of North Adams, near Williamstown. It was raining, which made it easier to spend a September day inside – and we were impressed not only by the exhibits but the building itself – a huge sprawling weathered old factory. The show on oppressed workers (see description below) was engrossing – as was the semi-permanent (“on view through 2033” according to the website) retrospective of bold colorful Sol LeWitt wall paintings (especially engrossing was a video of young people creating  these paintings, following LeWitt’s instructions.)

I thought the Tate Modern in London was huge – but Mass MOCA is even huger and the enormity of some of the art installations (by Nari WArd and Katarina Grosse) is astonishing. The museum also has a good cafe (Lickety Split) with large well-done salads and sandwiches. And if it had not been raining, would have been fun to poke around town a bit, especially some of the galleries that have sprung up in the wake of Mass MOCA.

THE WORKERS exhibit: “What does work look like today in a global economy marked by outsourcing, rapid migration, disruptive economies, and a state of labor that seems fractured, precarious, and almost invisible? With video, sculpture, photography, and performance art from 25 artists, this exhibition examines the way labor is represented today (and how some contemporary workers choose to represent themselves). “

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September 14, 2011 · 7:56 pm

Williamstown Mass – where to stay, eat, what to do

It rained most of our day in the Berkshires but we still enjoyed the scenery. First stop Great Barrington where what Rubiner could resist a visit to Rubiner’s Cheesemongers – an artisanal cheese shop in an old bank on the main drag owned by a cousin of mine.  The cousin wasn’t around – and there wasn’t any cornbeef for the “Rubiner Sandwich” (no joke) served in the Rubi cafe behind the cheese shop but we enjoyed our visit – eating two sandwiches in what appeared to be the former bank’s boardroom, now the cafe. Also dropped in at a clothing store I liked last time I visited several years ago – and bought a few things on sale.

In Williamstown, we stayed at the River Bend Farm B&B, a very unique place located right beyond the Williams College campus. Run by two free spirits, it’s a meticulously restored 18th century house – plus modern day amenities like plumbing and heat. There are only four rooms, only two occupied and we had the place largely to ourselves – staying on the ground floor in what was the parlor, a lovely room with plastered ceilings, old moldings, wrought iron chandelier, fireplace. Next door was the kitchen – which looked like something out a living history farm with a big stone hearth with iron implements and dried herbs hanging on the wall. The bathroom was unique too – dark wood with big old pots on shelves (and a well-functioning shower.) Breakfast was good – homemade granola, muffins, jams. Definitely would return!

We splurged at Mezze for dinner, a white- tablecloth restuarant whose chef is known for his locally-sourced ingredients. We had a very good pork dish and pasta with a pork, beef, sausage ragu.Another keeper.

En route to the Berkshires on Highway 7 in Connecticut we stopped briefly in the pretty village of West Cornwall – where we crossed a covered bridge above a raging river (truly – the rivers were all raging thanks to Irene and causing havoc in many places.)

 

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September 12, 2011 · 2:08 am

Tips from the Hamptons

My brother has mastered the art of finding inexpensive or relatively  inexpensive ways to vacation in the Hamptons. Staying with incredibly generous relatives certainly is a great start. Beyond that, he found a great book sale that operates on Saturday mornings from the public library in Southampton. He brought me along last Saturday and I was like the proverbial kid in a candy store. I couldn’t believe how many great novels and nonfiction books and kids books, you name it, – many only a year or so old – were there and how cheap they were (most $2-$4). We both left with big bags of books – I got maybe 12 books, many of them hardcover, for the price of one hardcover ($30). The next trick will be getting them home in my carryon luggage – fortunately I gave some away as gifts.

We also walked on the beach today in Southampton on one of those days when the weather is somewhere between summer and fall – and we had the beach largely to ourselves. Which is a rare treat. (In contrast to the main drag, 27, which was chock-a-block with cars much of the weekend, especially on Saturday morning.) Home to Iowa tomorrow  – and hoping we won’t encounter too much traffic in the morning en route to LaGuardia.

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September 9, 2011 · 10:54 pm

From Vermont to Water Mill NY just like that

As a midwesterner – this is what I love about the east coast. Within four hours we went from rural Vermont to the beach in the Hamptons. I woke up this morning in an 19th century inn in Grafton Vermont, with a few streets lined with pristine white wood houses, a white church with a huge white steeple and red dahlias abloom, a country pond lined with field stones. Now, at sunset, I am looking out across a lush green lawn rimmed with flora and fauna, beyond it the blue still waters of Mecox Bay. Beyond that a spit of land with big homes and then the Atlantic Ocean.

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