#LaSalle Street Station

[aryburn-trains]

CRI&P Jet Rocket departing LaSalle Street Station. Chicago, IL

[railwayhistorical]

The Changing Skyline of Chicago

A Rock Island commuter train departs LaSalle Street Station, in Chicago, Illinois. The locomotive here is an EMD F7A built for the railroad in March of 1949.

The Chicago Board of Trade Building is conspicuous in the background, while the John Hancock is lurking off in the background toward the right-hand side of the image.

The view was made from Roosevelt Road, and one would be hard-pressed to see much at all from this spot today: big box stores rise up on either side of the tracks (where Metra trains now run) blocking much of what one sees in this vintage view.

This image was made by Richard Koenig on December 22nd 1976.

[20th-century-railroading]

Metra - Bronzeville by d.w.davidson Via Flickr: We are at mile post 3 on the former Rock Island as NIRC SW1 No. 2 shoves coaches towards LaSalle Street Station, in March 1987

[captawesomesauce]

Dreams...

2 dreams that I remember -

We've been watching a lot of NCIS New Orleans.. probably too much. So the first dream that I remember, it was Lasalle, Sebastian and I at a Marina with a beach area. The three of us were "bait" and were hiding/hunkering down inside of an RV, totally surrounded and the bad guys were pounding on the thin walls, rocking the vehicle back and forth, while another was on the roof top jumping up and down.

I should at this point mention that in real life we were having a 4.7 earthquake near us. So... ya know... that explains a lot.

2nd dream started off very different from how it ended. It started with me walking across the street to a friends house. What was really weird is that it was an unknown street/unknown house/unknown - well - everything! Usually I dream about people I know and places I know, but this was nothing familiar.

Well I see a fire helmet on her porch and ask her about it and she said she found it in the street so I pick it up and go to return it to the nearby fire station.

I get there and WOOOO it's a giant one! Like the ones on the east coast with like 12 bays and shit... not our usual 1 and 2 bay small ones here in the SoCal area. Well everyone is training out back and so I go to leave the helmet somewhere and walk into another room and suddenly it's a college class at UCLA!

It's in one of the 4 original buildings, dunno if it was Royce or the one next to it... maybe. Not Powell though.

I walk in, and sit down in the front row in one of those tiny ass chairs with the built in lap desk... ugh.

The thing is, the room is a partial library and I'm spending more time looking at the books than I am listening!!! I had one class like that at Bunche now that I think about it, but those books weren't interesting.

The dual profs are starting to assign final papers and I'm being unusually gruff/cranky about it and didn't want to do the topic which I vocally said was pretty stupid.

It was just so vague! Just write 20 pages where science and art meet but the book has to have been published in the last 5 years and you literally have just 1 week to read all 400+ pages AND write the paper too, while studying for all of your other tests and shit. We were all grumbling about it as it didn't really pertain to the class at all. At that point we all noticed red flashing light start to light up our wall and room and the girl next to me says OH! You can see the UCLA ambulance drive past!!!!

I don't know... something made me realize it was all wrong, and the sounds and stuff were off and so I pushed her down to the floor and covered us with our tables right as a vehicle hit the building and the walls and ceiling exploded down around us!!!!!

When the dust and debris started to settle, I checked on her first and she couldn't really reply to my questions as she was more just yelling OMG and random shit.

So I started to stand up and look around, the room was still full of debris and dust and just looked like a tornado hit it, everything was scatted and covered and visibility was still really low.

And that's when I woke up.

So... if you ever wonder why I wake up feeling more tired than when I go to bed, it's probably because of THAT!

[archinform]

The Field Building, Chicago

by Roger Jones

June 19, 2024

Two views of the Field Building, c. 1930

The field building, 135 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, was built 1928 - 1934, and designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. Built by the estate of department store founder Marshall Field, it was the last major office building completed prior to a two-decade construction hiatus caused by the Great Depression and World War II. Its site formerly was occupied by the Home Insurance Building (1884), designed by William Le Baron Jenney.

Built at a cost of $12 million, the building featured 43 floors, and height of 163.1 m / 535 ft, and a surface of 111 484 m² / 1 200 000 ft. upon completion. It had entrances on both Lasalle and Clark Streets. The Field Building has also been known as the LaSalle National Bank Building, or Bank of America Building.

The building also featured 42 high-speed elevators, advanced technology at the time. Other innovations included polished aluminum window frames, radiant heat, dual elevators sharing one shaft, and pure drinking water delivered to drinking fountains in each office. The first and second floors were connected by escalators.

The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 9, 1994.

135 S. LaSalle, Solomon Cordwell Buenz

A distinctive moderne structure, the building's stripped-down design features smooth surfaces, limited ornament, and clean lines.

Straight vertical lines give the building a look as new as 1959. The main exterior material is limestone. The [lower] entrances made extensive use of white bronze and black granite, also with a complete lack of extraneous detail. As far as materials and craftsmanship are concerned, another Field building may never be built, architects say. The cost would be prohibitive. Three kinds of marble were used in the vast lobby arcade and corridors - white, from Vermont; a green variety, from Italy; and a delicately toned tan marble, also from Italy. The Field building took the entire output of the quarry producing the tan marble. It is irreplaceable, said Palmer. All the marble was cut and laid so that the patterns match from one slab to another. Source: Fuller, Ernest, "Famous Chicago Buildings," Chicago Tribune, January 3, 1959

Home Insurance Building, 1885 (demolished 1931), William Le Baron Jenney, architect

Plaque in the Field Building lobby

Postcard view

Photos from the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, Art Institute of Chicago

Photos from the Hedrich-Blessing Archive, Chicago History Museum

View of lobby, showing "bookend" tan marble above elevator doors

Field Building ground floor plan.

My photographs:

Graham, Anderson, Probst & White

The Chicago firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was founded in 1912 originally as Graham, Burnham & Co., as the successor tot the D.H. Burnham Company. In 1917, the Burnhams left the firm, and Graham and the others, (William) Pierce Anderson, Edward Mathias Probst, and Howard Judson White formed the subsequent firm.

The firm got the majority of the big commissions from 1912 to 1936, including iconic buildings such as the Wrigley Building, Merchandise Mart, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Civic Opera House, and the old main U. S. Post Office. They also designed built the Terminal Tower in Cleveland and Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City.

It was the largest architectural firm under one roof during the first half of the twentieth century, its closest rival being the firm of Holabird and Root.

Architectural historian Carl Condit commented on the Field Building: "Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White turned their backs once and for all on the past and produced a Sullivanesque skyscraper stripped down to essentials, a dense array of uniform vertical limestone bands, topped by a horizontal spandrel that simply marks the outer face of the parapet at the roof."

Major works by the firm in Chicago: the Wrigley Building, Merchandise Mart, Civic Opera House, Union Station, and Field Museum

Sources:

Online:

Chicagology: Field Building

Chicago Landmarks

Lasalle Reimagined

Chicago History Museum images

YouTube: Why Chicago razed the first skyscraper / The Field Building

Architecture and planning of Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, 1912-1936 : transforming tradition, by Chappell, Sally Anderson. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1992. Available on Internet Archive

Journals:

Field Building, Chicago Ill. Architectural record. 1932 Apr., v. 71, p. 277. Ill 

The sky's the limit: high-rise history in Chicago. Inland Architect. 1990 Jan.-Feb., v.34, no.1, p.60-[63]. Photos

The Field building, Chicago's newest skyscraper. Architectural Record. 1934 Aug., v. 76, p. 120-128. ill, plans

[rabbitcoolcars]

Mercury was the name used by the New York Central Railroad for a family of daytime streamliner passenger trains operating between midwestern cities. The Mercury train sets were designed by the noted industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, and are considered a prime example of Streamline Moderne design. The success of the Mercury led to Dreyfuss getting the commission for the 1938 redesign of the NYC's flagship, the 20th Century Limited, one of the most famous trains in the United States of America.

The inaugural Mercury trainset was taken on an exhibition tour throughout the New York Central system in late June and early July 1936. The train was displayed and christened in Indianapolis on June 25, then made exhibit stops from Indianapolis to New York City, where it was displayed for two days at Grand Central Terminal on June 28 and 29. In Chicago, it was estimated that about 17,250 people viewed the train in one day when it was on display on July 6 at LaSalle Street Station.

The first Mercury, operating on a daily roundtrip between Cleveland and Detroit, was introduced on July 15, 1936. The Chicago Mercury, between Chicago and Detroit, and the Cincinnati Mercury, between Cincinnati and Detroit, followed. The Mercurys lasted until the 1950s, with the final survivor, the original Cleveland Mercury, making its last run on July 11, 1959.

The Mercury gradually lost its special appeal as newer, faster trains were developed and automobiles and airplanes became the preferred mode of travel. It was used for regular runs between Cleveland and Detroit until service was phased out in July 1959.

Above: New York Central's all-new "Mercury" on display at Toledo Union Station, Ohio, on July 2, 1936. Photograph by George Blount.

[nimuetheseawitch]

💡😧 and 😄 for BJ is the Worst

😧 😄 and 📓 for The Problem with Starting Halfway Through

BJ is the Worst

💡 What gave you the idea for this one? I don't even remember at this point. I think I just wanted BJ to have made a complete wreck of his life and think that Hawkeye could fix it and explore that being way, way too much to put on Hawkeye. I've written a few things where I kind of fix BJ, and I wanted to go in the complete opposite direction.

😧 What are you worried about with this fic? That I have no idea how it ends. I think I have a really solid beginning, and a happy ending would be trite, but I don't know where a satisfying unhappy ending would be.

😄 What part are you most excited to write? The turning point when Hawkeye stops worrying about/taking care of BJ and has a moment to get angry at him for being an ass.

The problem with starting halfway through #5

😧 What are you worried about with this fic? It's a reunion fic, and those are so hard to do well in part because there are already several really great ones out there. Also, I started the series and this fic when I was deeply into hunnihawk, and I am less interested in the ship now and more interested in exploring characters. I'm trying to stay true to my overall vision of how I wanted the series to play out, but I'm worried about wrangling this fic into something I want to write and also something I'd want to read.

😄 What part are you most excited to write? There's gonna be a snowball fight. I need practice writing action scenes, and there will also be a bunch of awkwardness involved for the characters (because no one can communicate), but also, snowball fight!

📓 Share an out-of-context sentence or fragment from your fic notes

This is how Dr. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce found himself stepping off the train from Boston with his father in tow on the morning of Sunday, March 28, 1954 into the LaSalle Street Station and thinking fondly of another Chicago train station and the best ribs to be had anywhere.

[chicagostumbler]

Corner of West Ida B Wells Drive and South Financial Place: Located right outside the LaSalle Street Metra Station there is an uneven sidewalk that could cause a lot of falls if someone is not paying close attention to their feet as they walk. Would also be a hazard to people using anything with wheels. You can report any hazardous sidewalks in the greater Chicagoland area by calling 311 or visiting 311.chicago.gov for more details. If you have any pictures of dangerous sidewalks, you can tweet them to @redlineproject on Twitter.

(Photo/Maggie Morrison)

[catdotjpeg]

New Yorkers who have taken to the streets and subway stations over the last few days to protest the killing of Jordan Neely have been met with overwhelming force by the NYPD. Scores of police officers—including the unit that was found to have repeatedly abused its power during the 2020 protests—have shown up to relatively small demonstrations, violently arresting participants, journalists, and even a longtime advocate known for monitoring the NYPD. Meanwhile, Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine who choked Neely to death, has yet to be charged with any crime.

"Since 2011, I've been monitoring protests. This is the first time they ever decided to go after me," said Jose LaSalle, founder of the Bronx-based Copwatch Patrol Unit, who was arrested at a protest on Saturday. "So I was like, whoa, the game just changed right now." 

Late Monday night, the NYPD justified their combative posture by pointing to what they are calling a "Molotov cocktail" that they said was found at a vigil for Neely earlier that evening. "This is something that's dangerous," NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said at an extremely dimly lit press conference in front of police headquarters. "It could hurt members of the department. It could hurt other protesters. It could hurt innocent people who are passing by." But as of that press conference, all that was known about the alleged weapon was that it's a glass bottle with a rag and liquid in it—Maddrey admitted that the NYPD has yet to run any tests on what that liquid actually was.

Saturday's event, a show of solidarity and mourning in the wake of Neely's killing, started at the Broadway-Lafayette station and ended up at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Street station, where a group of protesters jumped down into the Q Line tracks to stop subway service.

After a few minutes, protesters climbed off the tracks and began to leave of their own volition. That's when witnesses say the police pounced.

"It's such an odd thing for arrests to happen when people are peacefully dispersing—we're not even talking about property damage or graffiti," Derrick, a protester who saw the arrests and said he was shocked by their intensity, told Hell Gate. "I was right in front of three awful, awful, awful arrests, some of the most brutal arrests I've ever seen—two young folks who were very small, and they were just beaten by huge police officers for no reason! There were like five, six police officers on each person. Just a sea of bodies."

The group of protesters followed the police and the people they arrested aboveground to the NYPD vehicles at 63rd Street and Third Avenue. As the group watched the detainees get carted away, the police started making more arrests.

"They played the LRAD and said to get off the street, but everybody was on the sidewalk, and they continued to grab people on the sidewalk in just the most vicious way," said Derrick, who asked that we not publish his last name due to law enforcement concerns. "They started making it seem like they were leaving, they walked across the street, and then they ran at us. The NYPD hasn't even released the names of the other two folks who participated in the murder of Jordan Neely—it's pretty remarkable that they're gonna criminalize protests and not criminalize murder." [...]

On Monday, the NYPD arrested 11 more people, including freelance photojournalist Stephanie Keith, at a vigil in Neely's honor at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station. [...]

"As far as the reporter, the reporter interfered in at least two arrests in the middle of the street, and they got very physical. The third arrest—she interfered a third time, so she was placed under arrest," [Deputy Chief John] Chell said about Keith. 

Keith, who has worked on Hell Gate assignments, declined to comment on her arrest, citing pending criminal charges for disorderly conduct. But Keith told Gothamist that she was "not even near the arrest, I didn't even see it."

LaSalle said that from his perspective, the NYPD seemed eager to make as many arrests as possible. "It's like they've been holding back for so long, that on Saturday, they couldn't hold back no more," he said. "It was like, hype. We were recording them and monitoring them and watching them, and we were seeing them very agitated. They was full of some type of testosterone, they were just ready. 'Grab him!' or 'Go get him!' It was a different feeling from SRG than we've felt in a while out there, during these protests."

-- “The NYPD Is Greeting Vigils for Jordan Neely With Brute Force” by Katie Way for Hell Gate, 9 May 2023

[marmarinou]

Rock Island F7A 677 (EMD 3-1949) leaving LaSalle Street station with an afternoon commuter run.

Chicago

June 8, 1977

Photo by Charlie Whipp

[rodpower78]

A 20th Century Limited passenger train leaves the LaSalle Street Station in Chicago for Grand Central Terminal in New York City (1938)

[aryburn-trains]

The Rockets by Craig Sanders Via Flickr: For a few years in the 1970s the Rock Island Railroad operated a pair of passengers trains from Chicago that served downstate Illinois points. Both trains received some funding from the state. Both trains featured Rocket in their names although neither was much of a speedster given the countless slow orders imposed on their routes. At left is the Peoria Rocket sitting next to the Quad Cities Rocket. Both trains made their final runs on the last night of 1978. The image was made at LaSalle Street Station in Chicago. June 25, 1977

[railwayhistorical]

LaSalle Street Station

Here’s a couple of shots from LaSalle Street Station, Chicago—home of the Rock Island Railroad. I'm quite fond of that first (vertical) image for the rich yellow and red colors present.

As for the second, I have several photographs taken around this time where the Rock Island logos had been removed from the noses of locomotives, which is rather disappointing.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken December 22nd 1976.

[attropin]

LaSalle Street Station, Chicago, 1936 by William M. Rittase

[899inety]

[ 0 9 6 ]

[robertmitchum]

FILMING LOCATIONS OF NORTH BY NORTHWEST (all are NORTH by WEST):

Commercial Investment Trust Building 40.763965°N 73.971302°W 

Plaza Hotel 40.764733°N 73.974241°W

Old Westbury Gardens 40.773822°N 73.594921°W

United Nations Headquarters 40.749127°N 73.968327°W

Grand Central Terminal 40.752724°N 73.977221°W

LaSalle Street Station 41.875304°N 87.632152°W

Prairie Stop 35.760814°N 119.561721°W

Ambassador East Hotel 41.905856°N 87.628303°W

Chicago Midway Airport 41.788372°N 87.744211°W

Memorial View Building, Mount Rushmore 43.877014°N 103.456213°W