Tag Archives: #vanlife

The Original Nutella Cafe

At Eataly in Chicago, we went to the first ever Nutella Cafe. As the name implies, it is a cafe entirely devoted to Nutella products. Crepes, creme brulee, cookies, all made or slathered with the hazelnut chocolate spread we all love.

We tried a brioche spread with Nutella, and a coconut Nutella cake. The brioche was soft and buttery, complemented nicely by the sweetness of the Nutella. The coconut cake was more intense. The Nutella seemed to be trying to overpower the coconut, and the coconut pushed back. They warred for control of your taste buds in a way that I couldn’t tell if it was good.

P1040059 They’ve now opened a second Nutella Cafe in New York City, so if you see an Eataly in either city, I’d highly recommend stopping by.

Chicago 3: downtown form

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The evolution of the city’s form over the past 150 years was an issue that kept coming up for me. I think it matters in two ways. First, at the street level, there is marked contrast between those areas in the Loop that were developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the block structure being set, and new buildings mixing in with old. They are superb, with the urban-canyon density that says Big City to us.

Then there are the areas where the streets/blocks/buildings were developed in the postwar era, such as the area east of Michigan and north of Grant Park, which is all postwar buildings, some good (the Aqua) but mostly banal. It is truly desolate – pointlessly large windy plazas, a lack of scale (massive buildings everywhere), constant shadow, needlessly wide streets, no street life. This seems to be the pattern that is being repeated in other areas now, such as directly north of the river.

the 20th century meets the 21st

The weird multi-street-levels of downtown Chicago produces some strange places, like this.

If, as Bob Stern says, "Architecture is a conversation across time", the 21st century is clearly saying "up yours."

If, as Bob Stern says, “Architecture is a conversation across time”, these buildings are clearly saying “up yours.”

The Aqua does a great job of punctuating all the rectilinearity, from many perspectives.

The second way in which this evolution plays out is at the level of building form, tectonics, detail, composition, etc. Here again, the areas where there is a monoculture of post-war buildings are terrible – everything is the same, large expanses of curtain wall, no detail, every building obviously maxing out the zoning envelope. The area on the river between Michigan Avenue and the Lake is the most glaring example of this – huge boring buildings, punctuated by the aggressive and simplistic Trump Hotel/tower thumb-in-the-eye.

In contrast, those areas where there is a blend of scales, styles, eras, sizes, etc., are amongst the most beautiful city districts in the country. One is always coming across places where the juxtaposition of the characteristics can be seen, a type of vertical collage that is unique to Chicago.

Even the Trump horror can be tamed by a varied context such as this:

The variety and contrast is endlessly entertaining. Perhaps we should write zoning ordinances that don’t focus upon the rules for one proposed building, but that somehow can acknowledge the overall gestalt of a neighborhood, and only allow buildings that will contribute to the greater whole.

Chicago Deep Dish Stuffed Crust Pizza

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Fifteen times thicker than New York style, and twenty times Neapolitan, Chicago deep-dish stuffed-crust made me understand why pizzas are called pies. We tried two different places; the famous Giordano’s, and Exchequer. Giordano’s took longer to bake, nearly an hour, but it was worth it. Each slice was more of a cohesive unit, the cheese not slidding off as much as the slice from the Exchequer, which required the assistance of a fork. I don’t think stuffed crust was the right name for either of them. Both pizzas were really a thin crust, covered in an inch and a half of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, sealed in with another layer of crust, then topped with more sauce and cheese. They were by far the heaviest things I’d ever eaten in my life, with not an air pocket or light ingredient to be found. P1030940
Although both were good, Giordano’s was undeniably better, living up to and surpassing its reputation. I’ve decided that Chicago pizza is the equal of New York style, just very different. All pizzas styles are created equal, but all pizzas are not, as the horrid pizza I was forced to consume in South Dakota showed me. Seriously, it was so bad, we didn’t even take back the leftovers to eat for breakfast.

Additional Note on Breakfast Pizza
I’ve decided that New York pizza and bad replicas of it should have their leftovers be eaten cold the next morning, and Chicago and Neapolitan should be reheated. For Neapolitan, use a toaster oven, and for Chicago, heat in a microwave until the inside is the temperature you want, then finish off in a toaster oven to restore the crispiness of the crust. Or if you’re really patient, which I am most certainly not in the mornings, simply heat it in an oven until it reaches the desired temperature.

Frances Bronet

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Frances Bronet arrived in Eugene ten years ago, as a candidate for dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, and we’ve been friends from the moment we met. Perhaps it was the way that Greta took to her immediately, and was sitting on Frances’s lap within five minutes. (We figured that anyone who could handle a shy three-year-old was the right person to run a design school.) In her years as dean (and one year as interim provost), Frances was a leader, a visionary, an indefatigable schmoozer, and a great representative and advocate for our school. She is the hardest working person I’ve ever known; I recently surprised a university gathering by mentioning that I had once seen her take a few days off. She accomplished all this without losing her perspective or her joie de vivre, and she left behind a school full of colleagues who regarded her as a friend and not just a boss.

the natural elements of Chicago: sky, water, and traffic

Frances began her new job as provost at IIT this summer, and even breaking her collarbone hasn’t slowed her down there. We spent the week staying in their fantastic apartment in a Mies building on Lake Shore Drive (to which Frances would return briefly to sleep when work allowed) which is furnished with two barstools, and an air mattress in every room – she hasn’t had any time to even think about furniture. The contrast of the view was great: leave the hustle and bustle of the big city, and return to your aerie where you see only the primal elements.

Jeff arrived from Eugene while we were there, and it’s likely that with his final move to Chicago, their lives may return to a higher degree of domestic normalcy. We will really miss Jeff and Frances and their children in Eugene, but it was satisfying to see them starting to settle into their new lives.

2018 update: Frances has now moved on to being the president of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Our main concern was whether the president’s house had a driveway where we could park our trailer the next time we visit.

Chicago 2: strolling around the big city

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A week in Chicago with superb tourist weather – moderate temperatures and blue skies, but a wind that blew around 30 mph off the Lake the whole time we were there (enough to give Greta pause about visiting in the winter). The Grand Bargain was achieved – the correct balance between looking at science and animals in museums (the Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, the Shedd Aquarium) and architecture (snuck in mainly while walking to museums). The last afternoon we went our separate ways, with Greta in the Aquarium, and me Mies-ing out at IIT.

Marina Towers top

Marina Towers bottom

The cupcake ATM: access to cupcakes at all hours

Greta with the mascot for our trip.

The Field has a great NW collection. This house pole was owned by Charles Edenshaw, who was Boas’s informant in the Haida cutlture.

A peak moment for a dinosaur nerd, Greta meets Sue

The Cloud / blob at its best.

As the building size has increased, the importance of the early skyscrapers, such as the Gage group by Sullivan and Holabird & Roche, is sometimes overlooked.

In a city renowned for its tall buildings, I’ve aways loved this short palladian on Michigan Ave.

Nightime view on lake Shore Drive.

Staying in a corner room in a Mies apartment building on Lake Shore Drive, the teenager will pull all the blinds so she can look at an iPad.

The view from the Mies building on Lake Shore Drive, as the setting sun casts building shadows on the Lake.

If Minneapolis had the stadium-as-kaiju, Chicago has the Helmut-Jahn-builds-a-Death_Star building.

If Minneapolis had the stadium-as-kaiju, Chicago has the Helmut-Jahn-building-as-Death-Star-under-construction..

The Death Star from the exterior. It's a crazy, anti-ruban building some ways, but it's probably my favorite Helmut Jahn building. At least it's fun.

The Death Star from the exterior. It’s a crazy, anti-urban building in some ways, but it’s probably my favorite Helmut Jahn building. At least it’s fun.

Someone clearly beat me to the idea of urban camping.

At the Museum of Science and Industry.

Our only question is where is the El that Batman has to destroy before it plows into Wayne Enterprises?

We had to drive 2700 miles to see this?

Greta waves to her cousin Audrey, who had to get ready for a meeting, and so couldn't come out to play. The life of an management consultant.

Greta waves to her cousin Audrey, who had to get ready for a meeting, and so couldn’t come out to play. The life of a management consultant.

Mariano Park: having spent most of my Chicago visits in the Loop, I wasn’t aware that these great little squares / parks existed.

Sunrise over Lake Michigan

Field Museum

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At the Field Museum in Chicago, it tells you that birds are dinosaurs. I learned that one bird has evolved to be even scarier than its awe-inspiring ancestors. The shrike.It doesn’t look big and scary. Blue-gray, maybe eight inches long, it could be mistaken for a blue jay. Its behavior is the scary part.
Shrikes are predatory, hunting small birds and rodents to eat. But they often can’t eat all they catch at one setting, so they store it. So, unlike civilized creatures that might keep it in a hollow tree or a burrow or something, they drape the carcasses over the branches of bushes. Bloody little mice and sparrows with their heads ripped off. Maybe they should be called shrieks, in honor of the noises people make when they find their little ariel cemeteries. And the best thing about these birds is that they live in North America. Maybe even in your own backyard. (Cue creepy music.)On a happier and less creepifying note, the rest of the Field Museum was cool. But we (I) did an idiotic thing by deciding to look at soil first. We spent half an hour in an exhibit clearly meant for six year olds, learning less about dirt than a single page of my geography book taught me. Half an hour of my life that I could have spent looking at dinosaurs. What was I thinking?

I guess I was thinking that we’d have enough time. But because of its stupid name I grossly underestimated the coolness of Evolving Planet, which told of the entire history of life on Earth. It included every major extinction event, every phylum in the animal kingdom and what distinguishes it, and a reminder that the next big extinction event in imminent, and man-made. But the museum closed at five, and we had no where near enough time to explore it properly.

We did, however, get to meet Sue, best-preserved and most complete T-rex skeleton ever found. No one actually knows whether Sue was a boy or a girl; she was named after the woman who discovered her, Sue Hendrickson, in 1990. Sue(the dinosaur, not the woman) is forty two(the answer to life, the universe, and everything) feet long, making her the largest t-rex ever discovered.

DSCF9614

And people who don’t like taxidermy should avoid the animal wing. Half a dozen rooms were full of stuffed animals, and by that I don’t mean plushies. Mostly it was various kinds of antelope, although they did have the Manhunting lions of Tsavo and tigers and bears(oh my!). One interesting thing was that the hyenas were in the reptile section until the museum can pull together enough funding to move them.

We did have some time to look at dinosaurs. Which are about the coolest things to ever walk planet Earth. I could rant for ages about how epic dinosaurs are, but I fear that if you don’t already think they are awesome, there is no hope for you.

All in all, the Field Museum was one of my favorite things I’ve seen so far on this trip. If you’re in Chicago and halfway interested in any kind of science you should go check it out. And learn from my mistake, and go look at dinosaurs first!

Samantha Duba

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Friday night at Velvet Tacos with Samantha Duba, who was in my housing thesis studio ten years ago (although it only seemed like five to both of us). Sam has been working for Perkins and Will in Chicago, and she looks exactly the same as she did ten years ago (hence the picture from her final review), although a bit more tan – probably a result of leaving Oregon.

Sam showed us around her office right on the river, with its acres of floor space and spectacular views. It is so satisfying to see our former students making their way successfully in the professional world, although it is a little unnerving to realize that Sam now has about as much professional experience as I do. We were then able to show her where to buy Carpano Antica, and our favorite fusion taco place (about which Greta has just posted a review), now being old Chicago hands after a week here.

Chicago: Velvet Taco

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At first we thought Velvet Taco was an odd name. It became clearer when we went inside and found that they served tacos and red velvet cake. We didn’t try the cake, but we’ll have more opportunities, as I’m sure that we’ll be returning.

The chicken tikka taco was superb. Also, very fun to say. The chicken was good, but for me, the rice made it stand out. A lot of people think rice doesn’t have much of a taste, but when I first bit into this, it was all I tasted. P1040031

I did not like the Cuban pig. The taste of the meat was overpowering, and not in a good way. It blocked out all the other flavors, leaving the taco both boring and aggressive. P1040028

The Annatto shredded pork, on the other hand, was the best taco I’ve ever had. Admittedly, I’ve never been to a fusion taqueria before, but it was still to die for. Grilled pineapple balanced with pickled onion, and the pork…. Oh, the pork. I do not have words that can accurately describe the pork, but I will try. Succulent and tender, sweet and tangy. If ambrosia were a meat, it would be this. P1040029

And for a taqueria, they had surprisingly delicious tater tots. The base tots were the same preprocessed ones you find in bowling alleys or school cafeterias, but the cheese, bacon, and avocado crema really made them pop. A fried egg on top kept it warm, as well as adding its own flavor. P1040027

We weren’t planning on desert, but when we spotted a gelato stand in Mariano square across the street, we couldn’t resist. We shared a scoop of white chocolate raspberry, and another scoop of toasted almond coconut fudge. The flavors complemented each other well, with just the right mix of fruit, nuts, and chocolate. In one spectacular bite, I got a raspberry, an almond, and bits of fudge and white chocolate. They really need to make a raspberry almond fudge flavor.

If you’re ever in Chicago, go to Velvet Taco at 1110 North State Street. Seriously, just go there.

Chicago 1

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We’ll be visiting some cities on this trip that will be new to me, and most will be new to Greta (although she did spend some time in Chicago when she was two). But there’s a peculiar pleasure in seeing a city you’ve visited with some frequency over the years. You don’t have to rush around seeing all the top sites. You know your way around, and you know what it used to be like. You can catch the new stuff, and casually re-visit favorite places. So the agenda in Chicago this week will be largely driven by Greta, who cares more about museums and food (wasn’t that the title of an Updike story?) than architecture. I’ll take the stealth approach, and walk her past lots of architecture on the way to museums.

Today it was raining and blowing like hell, so we headed to the Art Institute, mainly seeing modern art and the new Piano wing. As usual, simplicity of conception, space and light, with elegant detailing.

We spent a few years trying to find decent handrail brackets, and finally had to make our own. Does anyone know the store where Renzo buys his hardware?

We spent a few years trying to find decent handrail brackets for our house, and finally had to make our own. Does anyone know the store where Renzo buys his hardware?

Sculpture by Charles Ray. Both Greta and I thought it was pretentious and stupid, (George Segal abducted by Jeff Koons), but we liked the view out the window.

Sculpture exhibit by Charles Ray. Both Greta and I thought it was pretentious and stupid, (the love child of George Segal and Jeff Koons), but we liked the view out the window.

The train is a nice touch, but the pink street cleaner is sublime.

We also saw Millennium Park, Daley Park, and Lurie Garden for the first time. Many excellent parts – especially the garden.

I’m assuming that’s boxwood.

But perhaps it’s all a bit much put together? Every piece seems to be trying to outdo the others, and the curving walkway/bridge/thingee reminded me of some elevated ride through a theme park or zoo where you can look down on all the different exhibits.

The rain stopped, and we just wandered around the Loop until it was time to eat pizza.

I hadn’t seen the Aqua before, and I liked it as much as I expected to.

The Alcoa Building. Still looking great, surrounded by banality.

The Inland Steel Building. Still looking great, surrounded by banality.

This probably seemed like a cool idea during the conceptual stage. Didn’t quite turn out that way.

We realized that Donald Trump probably has his name on a God-awful building in every big city in this country. That alone should keep him from getting elected.

We realized that Donald Trump probably has his name on a God-awful building in every big city in this country. That alone should be enough to keep him from getting elected.