The Babuk Report

Category: Travel

So, what was that you wanted to know?

The last month or so has seen a flurry of behind the scenes activity at the Babuk Report. All for the good. It’s all about Learn About Chicago a venture described elsewhere in this blog.

Learn About Chicago is an initiative that is an extension of the sort of architectural awareness and organization that I’ve done in past. It is a division of Babuk Presentations, Inc.

The major focus of Learn About Chicago targets university students who want to spend an extended period studying Chicago’s architecture. It may be a studio class led a professor from a visiting institution, or it may be a program of presentations and interactive learning experiences that I assemble. I work with the visiting groups to tailor make a Chicago experience that they will take with them, to further their studies at their home collegiate institution. Learn About Chicago can work with many other groups wanting a series of presentations – presentations delivered by myself or others – bundled together into a program that describes Chicago.

Tour About Chicago is another division of Babuk Presentations Inc. Tour About Chicago focuses on delivering articulate and informative presentations about Chicago’s architectural and railroad history. I weave Chicago’s historical sites into captivating and fascinating story lines. Tour About Chicago is much like what I’ve been doing all along. Many of the Tour About Chicago presentations – especially those that describe Oak Park and the near western suburbs of Chicago will be marketed through Visit Oak Park.

Tour About Chicago specializes in the little known parts of Chicago. Quirky history.

Babuk Presentations, Inc. is a new direction within my architectural practice. It specializes in all types of presentations; graphic design, public speaking and the like.

Watch for a revamped web presence soon.

February 4, 2010
Visions of Winter, Melted Away…

The Firth of Forth Rail Bridge, Queensbridge, Scotland

A recent presentation to the Scottish-American History Club about the Firth of Forth Rail Bridge would not have been complete in historical context without mention of the Firth of Tay Bridge Disaster. One in the audience chuckled, and mentioned a poem composed about the disaster written by William McGonagall.

“…On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very, very, very, very, very long time…”.

While Robert Burns wears the honour of Poet Laureate of Scotland, William McGonagall is hailed as the absolute worst poet to have ever come from Scotland, and possibly the worst poet ever in the history of the English language:

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk

Thought of this prevented my writing much about winter.

January 10, 2010
The Abandoned Railway Roundhouse in Hanna, Alberta

This blog has written at length about early industrial age buildings that go up and down, and turn round, and do all sorts of neat things. One of those buildings from my youth is the abandoned railway roundhouse in Hanna, Alberta, Canada.

Abandoned Railway Roundhouse, Hanna, Alberta, used as a set for Nickelback’s “Photograph” Video

For years, this building sat empty. A group of concerned townspeople are putting together a not-for-profit organization to raise funds and to restore this Roundhouse back to its glory.

The Aviva Community Fund is holding a contest to award funding for community projects, the Hanna Roundhouse Project is one of those. This is a note from Laurie Armstrong, Director of Economic Development and Tourism for the Town of Hanna, encourage people to vote for this project, with a link to vote for this project:

VOTE FOR HANNA!

A project has been submitted to the Aviva Community Fund in the hopes that it will receive $250,000. There are three rounds of voting with only 4 days left in round one. The projects with the most votes and comments make it to the semi finals. Please vote and leave a comment for the Hanna Roundhouse Restoration Project!

Don’t forget to go back and vote EVERY DAY!

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf2308

This may be the last roundhouse left on the Canadian Prairies. As they say in Chicago, “Vote Early and Vote Often” !

October 29, 2009
Saturday, in the Park…

Years ago, the Chicago-born rock group “Chicago” had a sit single “Saturday, in the Park”. It described what was seemingly an idyllic weekend day in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. These kinds of days happen all the time in Chicago, witness this last weekend.

Cloud Gate, otherwise known as ‘The Bean”

Friends from Toronto called the night before. They had just flown in and hoped to meet up. Their plan was to take a leisurely morning stroll around Graceland Cemetery, completely unknowing about the Chicago Cubs baseball game next door at Wrigley Field, or even the Air and Water Show. I warned them, and they though that this was unusual. We agreed to touch base later in the day.

The Illinois Saint Andrew Society had their wrap up meeting of the Highland Games Committee, over breakfast. From my vantage point as Chairman of the British Car Show, we talked a lot about the weather, the flooded fields, and the success of the show despite nature’s wrath.

The Province of Nova Scotia invited me to attend their private reception at Irish Fest in Milwaukee. The Nova Scotians are awfully nice folks, even for a prairie kid like me. Though I really like Nova Scotia, I must admit that I’ve never been there. My parents were great fans of the CBC television show, “Don Messer’s Jubilee”, broadcast from Halifax, perhaps that counts. I hope that they’ll invite me back for their reception at Celtic Fest in Chicago.

More than a million people descended on the lakefront for the Air & Water Show. I kept thinking back to our visitors from Toronto, who were taking the same el line that those million people would be taking to the show, as well as all the crowds partaking the Cubs game; again, on the same el line. Game Day at Wrigley is kind of like a giant street party. Apparently, there’s a baseball game that happens during the party, the throngs are simply out having a good time.

Heard back from my visitors, they chose to spend the afternoon inside conditioned air at the Art Institute of Chicago. Good choice. They acknowledged my advice about the crowds at Wrigley.

It was one of the few dry days we’ve had in a while, and despite everything going on during a typical weekend (wasn’t it Lollapalooza last weekend?) the mundane things never let up. Yard work and my tomato plants were finally showing signs of ripening.

Zaha Hadid designed Burnham Pavilion

We managed to meet up at the Burnham Pavilions at Millennium Park. Last time I was there was at the dedication reception, coincidentally held during the nasty storm that reeked havoc on the Highland Games. Although the pavilion designed by UN Studio of the Netherlands was complete, the Zaha Hadid pavilion was not. It was now, and the time to see these pavilions are at night.

Crown Fountain at Millenium Park

Reynar Banham once described a concept of “the architecture of energy” – not counting every last watt or joule of energy and finding ways to conserve, but rather defining architecture by energy. The Burnham Pavilions at night – even the rest of Millennium Park – are great examples. The Bean was shining profusely in the dull light. Both Burnham Pavilions were kaleidoscopic in nature. The Crown Fountain was alive with shadows of children playfully running through the water on a hot, muggy night.

The city between the earth and sky

I’m still taken by the UN Studio’s Burnham Pavilion. Despite being designed in Europe, it’s a very prairie display of the earth and the sky, and the city that grew in between.

August 17, 2009
A River Runs Through It, and the Malibu Supper Club

I used to fly out of Gallatin Field in Belgrade, Montana quite a bit as a student. During my terms of office with the American Institute of Architecture Students, Gallatin Field became a regular point of departure / point of entry for trips to the east coast and other points. My alma mater, Montana State University, is located in Bozeman, Montana, and Bozeman is located at the very end of a broad but contained plain, the Gallatin Valley. The Bridger Range is at Bozeman’s doorsteps, so the only location flat enough, and with enough flat land on either side to support aircraft approaches is a town several miles away – Belgrade.

Belgrade’s a small town, out of a Hollywood western movie. The Malibu Supper Club used to be there before they had a fire and it burned down. It had a wooden grain elevator that was a seed cleaning plant and a water tower. They had a ‘walk up’ style mexican restaurant that served food on plastic plates.

Gallatin Field was a small airport with tremendous airline connections, the only airport at the time in the Northwest Orient Airlines route system that didn’t have a control tower. One year, the MSU “Fighting Bobcats” football team made it to a national championship of some sort. The Bobcat Booster Association chartered a DC-10 to fly out of Gallatin Field: waiting until the wind was blowing in the right direction, it barely made it over the mountains. The terminal building at Gallatin was a comfortable place; it even had a wood burning fireplace. Peter Fonda – a local – used to have a morning routine of breakfast at the airport cafeteria where other locals would fly in to partake of the runway view over coffee and huevos rancheros with the Bridger Mountains in back. One night, a group of us came across Mr. Fonda in the airport lounge – the cocktail waitress told us that she was ecstatic having just served Jeff Bridges, and complimented this fellow (actually Peter Fonda) on his movies. Perhaps Gallatin Field was the perfect hangout for a Hollywood star wanting to remain anonymous, or at least mistaken for Jeff Bridges.

Then Hollywood moved to Bozeman, more so after the filming of “The River Runs Through It” by Robert Redford. Glenn Close’s sister bought the Leaf and Bean Coffee Shop on Main Street in Bozeman; they used to sell a Celestial Seasonings tea blend called “Evening in Missoula” that I never drank. Apparently, the airport terminal was expanded to have a third gate, I haven’t heard if the fireplace, or the cafeteria, or the lounge still exist; it finally has a control tower, however.

This morning’s edition of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle featured a slideshow presentation of Air Force One – on the tarmac at Gallatin Field! The television networks were abuzz with a Town Hall meeting held inside a hanger – a hanger probably meant for Piper Cubs, maybe the occasional Lear Jet, but not Air Force One.

It seemed like the end of the age of innocence. After this event, it’s quite doubtful that Peter Fonda – or anyone else from Hollywood living near the Gallatin Valley in Montana – could ever frequent the airport ever again and be mistaken for Jeff Bridges.

August 15, 2009
Navigating around a 1970 Buick LeSabre

The LeSabre is watching me…

At the gym today, the only parking spot available for my 1977 Mini Clubman Estate was next to a 1970 Buick LeSabre four door Sport Sedan. I was dwarfed! Still there as I was leaving, I couldn’t even see around it when pulling out. My thought was “…gee, am I glad that this isn’t a Buick Electra, which was even bigger…”

…just try driving around this in a Mini…

Driving away on North Avenue, what happened to be a couple cars ahead in the next lane but a bright blue 1964 Buick Electra convertible. Absolutely enormous. But, no-one was turning heads to look at it – everyone was turning to look at my Mini !

David and Goliath, er… rather, Benny and the LeSabre

The Electra finally turned off of North Avenue onto a side street. People still kept pulling up alongside my Mini, asking questions and ask questions like – is it legal to have the steering wheel on that side?…

August 9, 2009
Roadside Oddities in Central Illinois

There is a certain stretch of Interstate 55 leading out of Chicago that is simply a nasty stretch of road, everyone drives like madmen. Before the television show made the term famous. And there’s lots of them. A peaceful way to avoid this is to take Old Route 66, this stretch being identified as Illinois Route 53.

Some years ago, I had the adventure of actually driving the entire length of Route 66, from Los Angeles to Chicago. My brain kept ringing the Nat King Cole tune “go through St. Louis, Joplin Missouri, and Oklahoma City looks mighty pretty…” .

Central Illinois has its share of oddities, though they are different than what I’ve encountered elsewhere.. Nothing like the “throw your trash into Orbit” roadside trash bins in Manitoba, with approaching signage timed to 100 km/h, or even the sign outside the CHAT Radio transmitter on the Trans Canada Highway in Medicine Hat that pronounced “10,000 persuasive watts” that had my mind in childhood fearful of these 10,000 critters roaming around, persuading people.

Giant Gemini – note the electrical wiring in back

“Giant Gemini” at the Launching Pad Restaurant in Wilmington, Illinois is a good example. Although there have never been any rockets (that I know of) launched from anyplace close to Wilmington, this concrete and sheet metal aberration – complete with its own electrical transformer so that the face inside the helmet can light up at night.

Signage as architecture – and vice versa

My favourite is the Java Stop coffee stand in Dwight, Illinois. A creative reuse of two metal freight containers, this is a visible piece of pop art visible for miles around. Too bad that it recently closed; I hope that it finds a new owner soon.

August 1, 2009
Ten Hours in Toronto

Spending ten hours in a city usually happens unexpectedly when your airplane connection is delayed. This wasn’t the case here; this was planned in advance.

I had a promotional plane ticket given for me, one that was going to expire this month. It had to be used, City of Toronto garbage collectors’ strike or not.

In my wanderings around downtown Toronto, it really wasn’t bad at all. I’d compare it to a clean day in New York City. A train that I took, however, passed by one of the city parks turned into a makeshift dump – a rather surreal mountain of plastic garbage bags.

There were hand sanitizing stations everywhere you could imagine. It seemed that someone was handing me a “moist towelette” wrapped in foil at every turn.

Garbage collectors’ strike or not, it really wasn’t too bad. At least downtown.

The Porter Airlines thing

I flew there and back on Porter Airlines – a “retro” airline that flies in and out of Toronto’s Island Airport. The stewardesses are decked out in pillbox hats and pencil skirts, they even offer passengers food and beverages – just like the old days. And they too handed out those ubiquitous moist towelettes in foil packages. Toronto must be the city with the world’s cleanest hands.

It’s a veritable who’s who that fly on Porter. At their gala reception in Chicago last February, I had a lengthy conversation with Mike Harris, former Premier of Ontario. Last March, who happened to take a seat opposite me in the departures lounge at the Island Airport but Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada. This time, I had the pleasure of showing a reporter from the Toronto Sun how to take the El from Midway Airport into Chicago, and giving my “nickel n’ dime” tour of Chicago’s southwest side along the way.

From the Island Airport Ferry, going to the Mainland

The Island Airport is incredibly handy to fly in and out of, it’s only a couple blocks away from the Royal York Hotel and Union Station. At what other airport in the world is one required to take a ferry – across water – to the baggage check-in? Then, they drive you to the Royal York.

The Royal York Hotel (I’m not sure if it still is a Canadian Pacific owned property) is always a hoot – ever since they closed the Beehive Room and ended the perpetual Petula Clark show that was ongoing for years (I’m suspicious that she may not have had THAT many hit songs to sing), they still have Her Majesty’s portrait hanging in the lobby, looking quite excited at the prospect at camping out there once more. I could never understand.

July 18, 2009
Rencontre avec Darrel G. Babuk – Architecte, spécialiste en réseau de transport

Publié le 9 septembre 2006

In english: some time ago, I was recommended to Christophe Loustau, Recipient of the prestgious Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. Christophe’s research project was to document the original New York City – San Francisco transcontinental railway across the United States. I did an amalgamation of many of my usual railway & architectural history presentations. This presentation completely zapped every single word of french vocabulary I knew, as I’m sure that it did the same for Christophe’s english. An entry from Christophe’s journal follows, which can be seen at www.christopheloustau.com . Maintenant, en Français:

Darrel G. Babuk est un passionné de transport ferroviaire. Il est architecte AIA, membre de l’institut royal d’architecture du Canada, reconnu comme LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional) et associé chez DLK Civic Design à Chicago. Il travaille pour différents clients comme Chicago Transit Authority sur le développement de leur réseau de transport. Actif dans le milieu associatif local, professeur à l’école d’architecture de Triton College et féru d’histoire de l’architecture, il participe à de nombreuses conférences pour faire partager cette passion. D’origine canadienne, il a grandi dans les gares même de Grassy Lake et Vulcan, Alberta dans les prairies de l’Ouest canadien où son père était opérateur télégraphiste. Notre rencontre s’est faite ici, à Chicago où nous avons traversé en long et en large la ville et sa banlieue dans sa superbe Chevrolet Corvair de 1965. Chicago a toujours été la plaque tournante commerciale dans le transport des marchandises des Etats-Unis. Sa position stratégique au croisement des Grands Lacs et des canaux et le formidable essor de son réseau ferroviaire en ont fait le berceau d’innovations architecturales et techniques. Nos différentes escales nous ont menées à parcourir différents thèmes étroitement liés au réseau ferroviaire : gare, entrepôts de fret et ponts ferroviaires et, à l’incontournable Frank Lloyd Wright.

A la fin du XIXe et au début du XXe siècles, plus d’une vingtaine de compagnies ferroviaires convergées vers Chicago. Six gares principales les accueillaient. Aujourd’hui, sur ces six gares, il ne reste plus que deux d’entre elles : Dearborn Station qui a été reconverti en complexe de restaurants et de services et Union Station qui est toujours utilisée par Amtrak. Les autres ont été détruites pour faire place à l’appétit des constructeurs. Union Station est l’œuvre de la compagnie d’architectes Graham, Anderson, Probst & White exécutée entre 1913 et 1925. Elle est l’un des plus beaux exemples de l’architecte néo-classique de la ville. A l’origine, elle était implantée sur deux blocs avant que celui côté Est, le long du canal, soit en partie démoli pour implanter un tour de bureaux. De ce bâtiment, seules les voies en sous-sol sont toujours existantes et encore en fonction.
De ces gares majeures implantées en cœur de ville près du Loop, qui est le nom du métro aérien qui dessert le centre de la ville en formant une boucle, les trains se dirigeaient vers la proche banlieue où chaque gare formait alors le centre d’un nouveau quartier, d’une nouvelle communauté. Celle-ci se développait autour de la gare sur un rayon d’un kilomètre environ, distance pouvant être facilement parcouru à pied. Les gares de Riverside et River Forest, que nous avons visité, sont deux exemples de ce développement. Ce modèle a été étudié et promu par Sir Ebenezer Howard dans son livre « Garden Cities of Tomorrow » en 1902, basé sur sa thèse de 1898.

Du fait de son réseau dense de canaux navigables, l’accès à la ville par les voies ferrées nécessitait la construction de ponts permettant la libre circulation des bateaux. Après le grand incendie de 1871, de nouveaux principes de ponts métalliques sont construits par les compagnies ferroviaires permettant de libérer le passage. Plusieurs systèmes sont inventés par leurs ingénieurs : pont tournant (swing-span bridge), pont à bascule (bascule bridge), pont transbordeur (vertical-lift bridge), … Plusieurs de ces ponts ferroviaires sont en cours de protection par la ville de Chicago dont le pont tournant de la compagnie Illinois Central Railroad, le pont basculant de la compagnie St Charles Air Line, le pont basculant de la Pennsylvania Railroad appelé « Eight Track » et le pont transbordeur de la même compagnie. Tous ces ponts ont un fort impact dans le paysage, souvent industriel, dans lequel ils se trouvent. Leur préservation est un repère important de l’histoire ferroviaire de la ville de Chicago.

De cet intense transit, les entrepôts de fret de l’Union Freight Station sont encore visibles. Ces imposants bâtiments de plusieurs centaines de mètres de long sur une cinquantaine de large et sur cinq étages de haut montrent l’impressionnante capacité de stockage que devait avoir la ville de Chicago. Aujourd’hui, ces bâtiments sont en majorité utilisés pour leur fonction originale. Toutefois, pour quelqu’un d’entre eux, des reconversions en loft commencent à se faire.

D’autres traces restent toujours visibles comme les silos de stockage (grain house). Ils sont les précurseurs des premiers gratte-ciels. Suite au grand incendie de Chicago, le bois avait été abandonné au profit du béton armé, leur donnant cette silhouette qui a inspiré Le Corbusier dans son livre « Vers une architecture ». Aujourd’hui, ces ouvrages sont à l’abandon.

More of Christophe Loustau’s journal may be viewed at http://www.christopheloustau.com/

July 9, 2009