2 posts tagged “avenue”
So instead I'm making another inner-city day trip, something that relies on taking the train in one direction, so that the total distance is something a lot more manageable. And today, in fact, I'll be visiting the historic neighborhoods of the near southside -- I'll be taking the train to 35th Street, to be specific, hopping off across the street from where the White Sox play, then meandering my way northward until finally hitting Harrison Street in the South Loop. And believe it or not, this ten-mile (16 km) route will take me through six different areas of historic interest in a single afternoon...
--The campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), much of it famously designed by Mies van der Rohe and other Modernist masters in the 1950s;
--Then historic Bronzeville, the very first neighborhood in Chicago for middle-class blacks, much of it razed over in the 1970s to make room for a cutting-edge urban revitalization project;
--Then Chinatown, not as famous as New York or San Francisco's version, but still a very interesting destination;
--Then over to the Prairie Avenue district, which was the first neighborhood in Chicago for upper-class whites, and which still contains several historic grand mansions from the period (which because of the Great Fire of the 1870s, which missed this neighborhood, also happen to be the oldest set of buildings in Chicago as well);
--Then northeast into the tourist-mecca Museum Campus, a unified and very contemporary green space (built just a few years ago, in fact) linking together three of the city's most popular museums (the Field, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium) along with Soldier Field, McCormick Place and others;
--And then finally, due west into the historic Printers Row neighborhood, which is where almost every book and newspaper publishing company used to be headquartered in the 1800s and early 1900s (back when a whole lot more book and newspaper companies used to be headquartered in Chicago in the first place), which was then transformed into a residential area after World War II, and is now a popular haven for the creative class.
Zow! It's pretty amazing, all the cool things packed into this small area of the city, once you get to thinking about it; I'm anticipating a very fun trip, accentuated by the fact that it's a public holiday and therefore a ton of other people will be out as well (especially in the more touristy sections of this route). And this should provide for a really great, information-rich map when I'm done as well, which of course is why I picked this route in the first place. Anyway, I'll be taking off in just another half-hour or so, so wish me luck, and make sure to stop by this site throughout the day for small real-time updates during the trip itself.
Anyway, like I said, wish me luck, and pray to the bicycle gods that this adventure be yet one more where I don't get hit by a car. First update coming in just a little bit!
Ever since Google officially started offering a way to create customized maps within both their 2D Maps program and 3D Earth one, I've of course wanted to make one; and as regular readers know, last weekend I went out and finally shot a whole mess of photos for my first one, a four-mile tour of the southern two-thirds of Chicago's Lincoln Park. I got on a tear tonight and just finished, and the results are so stunning that I simply had to write up a quick blog entry about it, and post some screenshots.
Here is the 2D Maps version you're seeing above, which is impressive enough (click on any of these thumbnails today to see the larger versions); as you can see, I can plot quite the detailed paths, could've added shapes as well if I had wanted, can change colors along the way, and can even embed photos and videos into placemarks. (You don't have to host your photos and videos at Google's Picasa and YouTube respectively; but it doesn't hurt, and both are free, just as the ability to make these customized maps are.)
Where things get truly jaw-dropping and science-fictiony, though, is with the 3D Earth file also generated in the process; imagine this customized map but now with the ability to spin it in real time in all directions, and to have the placemarks' titles virtually displayed on the map itself. Google Earth is freaky enough, as habitues of the software will attest; but now imagine being able to add your own hyper-customized path to it, too, that you can spin around at any angle and at any altitude you want in real time.
But of course it's even better than that -- just like with the 2D Maps version, clicking on the placemarks will bring up the description and photo or video I've embedded to it, no matter what the direction or zoom level you're at in the file itself. It...is...amazing, and I can't stop playing with it.
In fact, one of my fun activities has turned out to have very serious benefits; and that's when you manage to line up the path in Earth with the angle the placemarked photo was taken at as well. I realized, this cool new thing one can do in Google Maps and Earth, it could also be a profound and powerful research tool for anyone planning a trip as well, whether that's a local bicycle one or an international tourist one. I can't get across what a mind-jarring thing this customized 3D Earth file is, putting it together yourself out of your own cellphone photos and videos, suddenly having this hyperreal virtual version at your fingertips, ready to share with the world.
But hey, don't take my word for it; try it out for yourself. Here is the link to the 2D Maps version, for those who would simply like to check it out online quickly right now; and once you're there, you can just click on the "KML" link in the upper-right corner to download the 3D Google Earth file. (Of course, you'll need Google Earth downloaded and running on your computer for it to work; but you already knew that.) If you've got any suggestions regarding future maps, send them along to ilikejason [at] gmail.com; I hope to make lots more of these maps over the course of this summer and fall. Coming next: a detailed look at Montrose Harbor in my neighborhood, another eight-mile (13 km) round trip, photos of which have already been taken.