Chicago is very much an open-air museum of modern architecture. From the first skyscrapers throught their streamlining in the 1950s Modern style (pioneered by the German transplant to Chicago, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), through the postmodern period and beyond, Chicago architectural firms and city planners have an unquenchable thirst to build upward. Some say that it has to do with the terrain of Illinois: lacking natural elevation of any kind, the people of Chicago decided to build their own mountains! Here the Monkey rests by the landmark Buckingham Fountain (1927) in Grant Park with some of Chicago's magnificent skyline behind him.

Aside from being a fancy shopping district, North Michigan Avenue boasts some of Chicago's best known buildings. The black, cross-braced tower is the John Hancock Center. Designed by Bruce Graham of Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the Hancock tower reflected Mies van der Rohe's principles on a grand scale: the building is 100 storeys tall and peaks at 344 meters. Its 95th floor bar, the Signature Room, has stunning views of the whole city. Graham and SOM surpassed the Hancock Building with their Sears Tower just four years later.

The slender limestone spire at left is the Chicago Water Tower. Built in 1869, the water pumping station survived the Great Fire of 1871 and has become a symbol of the city.

In 1938, German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was invited to become director of Chicago's Armour Institute. Mies had been a director of Bauhaus, the famed German arts and design institute, but felt it wise to leave Germany as Nazi rule grew ever more maniacal. Mies is renowned for his eloquent mantra, "Less is more." Expanding on the idea, Mies asserted, "The true task of architecture is to let the structure articulate the space; it is not the building that is the work of art but space."

After the Armour Institute merged with another school to form the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Mies was asked to design the new school's campus on Chicago's South Side. Given carte blanche, Mies created one of the Modern movement's most expressive set-pieces. Here, the Monkey poses in front of IIT's Crown Hall, which is a multi-purpose building that includes a cafeteria, offices, lecture hall, and workshops. Mies' genius shines through here: the exposed steel I-beams that hold the cantilered roof up mean that the building's interior is almost completely devoid of support structure. Enormous window walls add to the sense of openness.

Mies had a massive influence on Chicago architecture from the 1950s through the 1970s, and many of the buildings on these pages follow Miesian aesthetics and forms. Mies died in Chicago, the city he had revolutionized, in 1969.

Before building his intriguing River City complex in the South Loop, hometown architect Bertram Goldberg gave Chicago's River North district two of its most distinctive buildings in the form of the Marina City Towers. Built from 1959 through 1964, these round residential high-rises feature ingenius ramped parking levels within the towers, as well as a marina (the Chicago River is between the Monkey and them in this shot). The twins are 60 storeys tall and are right in the heart of the city. The black high-rise next door is by Goldberg's mentor Mies van der Rohe (see below).

The Monkey poses in front of more modern high-rise buildings along Chicago's Lake Michigan. The black tower at right is Harbor Point (1975). Designed by Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz and Associates, many critics say it approaches Mies' lifelong dream of a curved-wall, glazed, high-rise residential block.

The Monkey takes in the canyon of modern towers along the Chicago River. At right is Mies van der Rohe's last effort in the United States, the 52-storey IBM Building (1969-1971). Clad in steel with bronze-tinted windows, the IBM Building was also Mies' largest structure, but despite its size it held true to his "less is more" approach to architecture.

Across the river just to the left of the IBM tower is the R.R. Donnelley Building (1992), designed by DeStefano and Partners. Its postmodern flair incorporates mirrored windows and a neoclassical cap on the 50-storey tower. Next to it, the Leo Burnett Company Headquarters building (1989) is a modern 50-storey office block by Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates. Chicago River boat tours are an enjoyable way to learn more about the city's architectural heritage.

The Monkey is enchanted by the graceful shapes of the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette, a lakefront suburb north of Chicago. Built between 1920 and 1953, the nine-sided, domed temple's luster comes from quartz-embedded concrete and fine etchings.

The Baha'i faith was founded by a Muslim mystic, Baha'u'llah Baha'i, in mid-19th Century Persia. Though rooted in Islam, Baha'i bears little resemblance to that faith. There are some 6,000,000 adherents worldwide.

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