Just south of the Water Tower Place shopping center is located the actual Chicago water tower and its pumping station. This is the Chicago landmark for which the shopping center was named.
The water tower itself is located across the street, kitty-corner from the shopping center in a beautiful, small (about 1/3 of a block), partially tree shaded rest area.
The pumping station however, is out in the open on the east side of Michigan Avenue, just south of the shopping center.
The water tower's park is a place where pedestrians can come to relax for a few moments, away from Michigan Avenue's hustle and bustle. Here, the water tower building and its trees work together to block out and muffle much of this busy street's noise. So it's a very pleasant place to relax and snack or to just sit down and cogitate in peace for a while.
Here people can also catch a horse drawn carriage for a leisurely tour of the surrounding up-scale north side area if they have the time and the inclination.
These 2 sand stone buildings were built in 1869. But after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, they were the only public buildings that remained standing in this area. Only a few other, privately owned buildings survived with it but they have since been torn down. So these 2 buildings are now being preserved by the City of Chicago as historic monuments and used as tourist attractions.
Below is a Wikimapia map starting from the top at the water tower and the pumping station and proceeding south for 2 blocks. It shows some more of the Miracle Mile's buildings that are just south of this unique Chicago landmark.
This blog is a work in progress so be sure to return once in a while. We will be posting more 3D photos here soon....
This Magnificent Mile of ultra-fine hotels, great restaurants and exclusive shops starts at the world famous Drake Hotel (on your left in this photo) on its north end at Oak Street and ends at Grand Avenue on its south end. This is Chicago's version of New York's famous Fifth Avenue.
As you are driving from the north side of the city towards downtown on Lake Shore Drive (also referred to by Chicagoans as the Outer Drive or just the Drive), the dark and towering John Hancock Building is the tallest of the Magnificent Mile's buildings so it's the one that you'll first notice.
It's the extremely tall, dark sky scraper which is topped off with twin white broadcast towers, centered in the photo above and on the left side of the photo below.
It is an easily recognizable landmark building that will loom larger and larger and larger as you approach downtown Chicago.
The southbound Michigan Avenue exit from the Outer Drive lets you off right at the beginning of the Magnificent Mile and the Hancock building is located 2 blocks south of there.
In the photo above, the much shorter Drake Hotel building (which is at the head of Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile), followed by the Palmolive Building are both seen in front of this huge 100 story behemoth.
Below is a Wikimapia map of the north end of Michigan Avenue where the Magnificent Mile begins, which shows the first 4 blocks of its buildings....
So as you can see at the top of this map, when you exit the Outer Drive at Michigan Ave, the first building to greet you on your left is the Drake Hotel with it's fine restaurants and shops....
The Drake's Cape Cod Room is one of Chicago's best seafood restaurants.
Greeting you on the right side of Michigan Avenue, right across from the Drake Hotel stands the One Magnificent Mile Building.
This is a modern office building that is full of high-end retail shops.
These 2 buildings are the northernmost citadels of Michigan Avenue's fabulous Magnificent Mile (the Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building are its southernmost citadels).
The Drake Hotel is followed by the Palmolive Building which is most famous for at one time housing Playboy Magazine's offices and its first Playboy Club.
On the right, next up from the One Magnificent Mile Building is the stand alone Bloomingdales building.
This famous up-scale department store is many people's favorite place to shop on Michigan Avenue.
And on the next street past Bloomingdales is the classical architecture of the 4th Presbyterian Church and its rectory.
This is a very place for Michigan Avenue's pedestrians to stop in and restfully meditate with God for a while.
This beautiful church has open doors to its sanctuary which draw pedestrians right off of the street into it.
Back across the street and to the left is the 750 room Westin Hotel...
Then, to the south of this classy hotel, stands the mighty John Hancock Building, one of the tallest buildings in the world, a major commercial and residential hi-rise.
You can hop its elevators and in just under 40 seconds soar 1,000 feet up into the building's great observation deck! Once up there, you can get a great 360 degree view of the entire city and its lake front. But be sure to pick a really clear day to go up there or you will be disappointed in the view because the clouds or the haze easily obscure it.
Down below in front of the Hancock building is its beautiful, lower-than-street-level outdoor cafe area.
This is a fine place to stop, have a snack or a meal and relax for a while from a busy day of shopping.
The following is a 3D ambiance video of people enjoying the John Hancock Center's outdoor lower-than-street-level dining area on a nice, sunny morning. To focus and view it in 3D you will need special red - cyan (blue) colored glasses which you can also use to view the anaglyph stereoscopic photo version of this post (which is coming soon) and all of the rest of the internet's stereoscopic 3D anaglyph photo content.
If you don't already have a pair of these glasses, please see the margin for instructions on how to purchase them from us. We sell and ship inexpensive cardboard versions of them for just $1 each (minimum of 3).
Here in this building's lower level outdoor dining area Chicagoland's famous Cheesecake Factory, with its delicious assortment of foods and treats, is the major restaurant player.
There are also a couple of other small, inexpensive cafes down here. Chicago people and tourists enjoy sitting out and eating and drinking in this unique place. And surprisingly, the prices here are not that high!
On the city's nicer days, people really enjoy taking the double-decker sight-seeing buses and touring around downtown and the near north side.
Others enjoy just strolling around the Miracle Mile.
Sometimes there are huge crowds present, especially around the Hancock building.
Further south, just beyond the Hancock building is Chicago's unique and interesting, Water Tower Place, a multi-level shopping center.
This is a very unique shopping center that is chock full of many, many fine shops and restaurants.
It provides a central bank of escalators to lift people up and down to its many stores which are located on its 7 levels of open floors.
This blog is a work in progress so be sure to return. We will be posting more 3D photos and videos here soon....
How to Buy 3D Glasses from us for viewing anaglyph 3D images
Unfortunately, anaglyph 3D images require red - cyan lensed glasses and they are not the easiest glasses to find in stores. We know, because we searched all over the Chicagoland area for a store that sells them and could not find one! Now if we can't find a single store that sells them in a big city like Chicago, what does that say for people trying to find them in the rest of the country?
And now that 3D is becoming so popular everyone really needs to have at least one pair of red - cyan glasses nearby to their computer just so that they can view anaglyph photo and / or video images as they are encountered on the internet. All of my geek friends have a pair handy because they are aware of this but what about the general public who doesn't yet know this or if they do, they can't find a pair conveniently?
In order to eliminate the need for photos to be viewed with special glasses, the new Piku - Piku image viewer from 3DStart.com must be incorporated by the photo image creators within their blogs or websites (as we have done here). This is not a total solution to the glasses problem because first of all, 3D videos which are only in the anaglyph format, still require glasses to be viewed. Also, full screen 3D photo viewing requires anaglyph format images that can not be viewed without the glasses. And finally Piku - Piku images like these on this page aren't yet able to reveal the full depth of an image as well as an anaglyph 3D image does.
So to help you, we are making it possible here for you to easily obtain free cardboard framed, red - cyan glasses. Just go to - 3D-Chicago.com where you will be instructed on what to do to get these glasses.
My dear friend and great e-partner Alex Hanson (no blood relation but Divinely ordained) and I are the authors of this blog as well as a few other blogs and websites.
We live and work in Chicago. We are both geeks who have low paying jobs. So rather than for us to seek higher paying jobs in tech slave mines wherein we would be required to shovel computer coal, we are staying independent and free (though poor), trying to make a few extra $$$ through ad, product & subscription revenues from our growing number of websites and blogs. We try to make each of them as informative and thorough as possible on their subjects, just as we are trying to do here for the subject of computer and print 3D. Contact me at 773-908-5448 if you have any unanswered questions about 3D imaging.
