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Chicago Allegro

photo credit: star5112

Chicago Allegro:

 Are you planning a trip to Chicago and expect to be treated like royalty in five star accommodations? Do you consider yourself a more discerning guest? Are you looking for a more luxurious experience with a red carpet touch? Are you looking for the finest quality and excellence in 24 hour round-the-clock service? If this is the case, then the Chicago Allegro is the five-star hotel for you.

The Hotel Allegro Chicago is located in the heart of the Windy City, right in the middle of all the action, the glitz and glamour, the history, and the culture. If you are looking for a more cultural experience, the luxury hotel is located just a few steps away from the city’s most famous cultural landmarks and City Hall. If you are looking for the shopping and nightlife the city has to offer, it is well in the vicinity and minutes away from the city’s shopping areas and hot spots. If you are an avid sports fan, the hotel is close by the city’s major sports attractions, which is known for housing the USA’s top sports teams. If you are in company of your most beloved pet, have no worries. The hotel is not only five-star, it is also pet friendly. If you are on a business trip, the hotel is well equipped with the latest technology, which will make conducting business convenient and pleasurable.

For whatever the reason, if you are looking for luxury coupled with personalized service, there is only one place to be. The Chicago allegro will surely live up to your discerning standards.

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The Windy City

The Windy City is full of more than just, well, air. Chicago is the heart and soul of America’s Midwest, the country’s third largest city behind New York and Los Angeles, and claims some of the most recognizable architectural monuments of American tradition and culture, such as historic Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower. Chicago’s skyline is one of the most recognizable in the United States and the soulful sounds of this city are some of the most recognizably influential all over the world.

Chicago is situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, making it both a strategic economic port city and a lifeline into America’s heartland. A wave of European immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries made the city a true iconic melting pot for the country as a whole. Additionally, Chicago has roughly equal populations of Caucasians and African Americans and the second largest population of Chicanos behind Los Angeles. This multicultural identity adds unparalleled flavor to Chicago cuisine, art community and, of course, political history. Remember, Chicago is the site of the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention where riots ensued in the streets and extreme police force was employed.

Dust it off, Try Again and Flourish
The architectural sophistication of Chicago can largely be attributed to the zeal with which Chicagoans bounced back following the devastating Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The world’s first skyscraper was constructed from the ashes and Chicagoans proceeded to firmly commit themselves to preservation, which is why you will have the privilege to view the abundance of historic buildings lining the streets. Take a Loop Tour Train to see most of the significant sites while a guide from the Chicago Architectural Foundation makes note of their attributes. Lincoln Park is a massive artery of Chicago’s culture, history and greenery and a wonderful place to begin exploring the city’s infinite expanses. Don’t miss the Lincoln Zoo and the Notebaert Nature Museum. Also keeping Chicago notable in history books, Oak Park, a Chicago suburb, is the birthplace of Earnest Hemmingway and the home of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Chicago Blues and Comedy Troupes
There is no better way to put it except that Chicago has soul. The life of the city pulses on jazz beats and blues progressions, impromptu improv and carefully worked theater. The Second City Comedy Troupe is the original home of Saturday Night Live and also offers a packed house of laughs on a consistent schedule. Along the Chicago River, the Civic Opera Building (1929) is home to the world famous Lyric Opera of Chicago and is notably the second largest theater in the United States. In a city that invented house music, gave birth to techno and is exploding with jazz clubs, your evenings will never leave you wanting.

To take in the whole of Chicago, the proper way is from above. To top off your experience when you travel to Chicago, visit the historic skydeck of the Sears Tower or revel in the 94th floor panoramic views of the Hancock Observatory, which also offers a delightful touch of live jazz on the weekends. Travel to Chicago and discover the blue-collar workingman’s origin of the American Dream, laced with all of the trimmings of progressive modernism.

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Chicago’s Water Tower

Chicago is one of the largest and most populated cities in the United States.  It has many attractions for visitors and tourists, to travel around and see.  One of the oldest and more popular of all the attractions in Chicago is the City Gallery in the Historic Water Tower.  The Chicago Office of Tourism is staffed to take care of and protect the gallery.  Chicago Public Art Program is curator of the gallery. 

Chicago’s Water Tower is the city’s most beloved landmark and it has been for over 100 years.  It was first designed and built by an architect by the name of William W. Boyington.  Today, it stands as a memorial to the lives that were lost in the Tragic Chicago Fire.  A little bit of history on the Historic Water Tower would date back to 1869 when it was first built to be the home of a 138-foot-tall piece of standpipe.  This enormous pipe was also three feet in diameter.  The purpose of the pipe was to maintain and equalize pressure and to knock down the amount of water that was flowing through all of the main water pipes in Chicago.  The tower was built out of “Joliet” limestone, that was made into blocks, from a rock quarry in Illinois.  This was probably the best idea someone had back then, because history tells of a great fire that broke out in Chicago in 1871 and leveled almost all of the buildings except for this tower.  The day after the fire, people used this Water Tower as a guide to look through all the ash and ruins for items that had belonged to them. 

Chicago’s Water Tower then became a city monument because of the city’s water works engineers’ spirit and drive to help the people who had lost nearly everything they had owned. 

The enormous tower is actually constructed in what people call “castellated gothic style”.  The saw-toothed looking tower were drawn up and designed by Boyington to captivate ones sense of a medieval castle.  The octagonal form symbolizes Gothic elements, and the slenderness of the tower is supposed to symbolize a “minaret quality”.  The total foundation of the tower has over 168 piles that are filled up with concrete and capped off by one foot oak timbers.  Enormous stones that are edged in cement make up the base below the grade.  All of the 40-foot sides have doorways and two large grand windows.  The second and third sections look similar to all the other sides except they rise in height but their size decreases.  The octagonal tower is centered and set a little ways back from the top of the third section.  From top to bottom it rises over 154 feet from ground level. 

The huge sandpipe was eventually removed in 1911, after it became apparent that there was no longer any use for it.  The enormous eye-catching spiral staircase that went all the way around the sandpipe was left alone.  The spiral staircase is still there, intact, today.  The use of the staircase these days is to reach the new tower that was built called the “Cupola Tower”. 

Today the official use of the tower is as the city’s photography gallery and the pumping station built below it serves as the Chicago’s main water works supply.  A Visitors’ welcome center is also built near it so people may read up on how the tower was first built, and the purposes that it served throughout the years.  In 2003 the Chicago Pumping Station became the home of the Lookingglass Theater.

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