Design For Living

The calendar says Spring and with the happy promise of warmer weather and fair sailing ahead, may I give you a suggestion about how to spend a wonderful Chicago afternoon?

Last August I floated down the river in fine company.  With me were the shades of Daniel Burnham, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harry Weese and their host-  the very lively Steve Gersten.

My friend Steve is a docent/lecturer for the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  Under their august auspices, he wears a tour guide’s hat as he escorts groups of tourists and old Chicago hands around our fair city.

By land or by sea- or by Segway.

I love architecture, and our city has more than its fair share of knockouts- both historically important and visually breathtaking.  (And a shout out goes to the Original Master Architect for providing a spectacular lakefront in which to showcase all of it.)

And I have loved Steve since our cloudless teenage days at New Trier High School.  He’s the funniest guy I know.  So together we planned an outing where I could appreciate both his sense of humor and sense of style.

We settled on a date and a venue- a CAF tour boat that is moored at the southeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker.  Down below.  (At sea level, of course.)

At the appointed hour I presented myself as a F.O.G. (Friend Of Gersten) V.I.P. Immediately, I got a great “welcome aboard.”  As a F.O.G. I was treated to an early embarkation, a tour of the Lido deck, a free Diet Coke and a meet and greet with the intrepid captain.

Then I was ushered to the upper deck to choose a seat.  I grabbed a good one.  Orchestra- on the aisle.

From my vantage point I watched as Steve now graciously met his audience.  He stood in an informal receiving line and spoke with each passenger as they boarded.  He had a joke or a smile for everyone.

And then it was time for them to take their deck chairs and we shoved off.

The next hour and a half was a terrific mix of fact, anecdote and stand-up.  Steve’s spiel was learned, serious and very informative.  Except for the quips and ad libs that always crop up whenever Steve Gersten is in the (wheel) house.

The audience ate it up.  Both the facts and the wisecracks.  I looked around at the rapt and smiling faces- a mixture of ages, sexes and nationalities, as I recall.   And Canadians.

All of them reveled in Chicago’s beauty.  This is truly the way to see it.  On board a slow-moving vessel majestically sailing down the Chicago River.  On my port side were some of the city’s most famous skyscrapers.  On my starboard side were charming apartment houses whose patios backed up to the water.

I had never noticed them before.  How lucky were these people to have this waterway as a backyard?

And Steve also made us look up.  Our eyes beheld cupolas, gilded domes, angels, pinnacles- all glinting in the afternoon sun.

As we went under bridges, he pointed out the sculpture and friezes that adorned each bridge house.  I had never seen those beauties before, either.  Another exciting architectural moment.

What a looker of a town.  What a delightful way to spend a couple of hours.

“Even a brick wants to be something,” Louis Kahn said.

One day soon why don’t you let Steve show you just how fabulous a Chicago brick can be?