The Chicago Cultural Center – Formerly Chicago's Central Public Library

The Chicago Cultural Center opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed Presidents and royalty, diplomats and community leaders. It is located in the Loop, across Michigan Avenue from Millennium Park. This building is a favorite cold weather location for Urban Sketchers Chicago.

The following interior sketches of the Chicago Cultural Center are by Alex Zonis

Originally the central library building, it was converted in 1977 to an arts and culture center at the instigation of Commissioner of Cultural Affairs Lois Weisberg. The city's central library is now housed across the Loop in the spacious, post-modernist Harold Washington Library Center opened in 1991. The building was designed by Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge for the city's central library, and Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) meeting hall and memorial in 1892.   

This is the Harold Washington Library. With the conversion of Chicago's former central library into the Chicago Cultural Center in 1977, a long-term temporary central library was opened in the Mandel Building at 425 North Michigan Avenue and much of the library's collection was put into storage.

A highly publicized design competition, the winning design was awarded to the most overtly traditional approach in the midst of some very diverse proposals. The building recalls neoclassical institutions, but is not literal in all its details. Anyone who walks past this solid red brick structure is compelled to look up when a strong sense that you are being watched overcomes you. It is one of four10 foot tall owls situated at the corners of the roofline.

With the support of then Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and Chicago's wealthy Pritzker family, ground was broken at the chosen site at Congress Parkway and State Street, covering an entire block. Upon the building's completion in 1991, the new mayor, Richard M. Daley, named the building in honor of the now-deceased former mayor Harold Washington, an advocate of reading and education among Chicagoans as well as an advocate of the library's construction.

Suggestions for passing Border Control and Customs

O'Hare airport - Alex Zonis

USk Chicago welcomes all our guests to our city for the 8th International Urban Sketchers Symposium.

Given the level of stress about passing the Border Control on arrival, we collected information from official websites and suggestions from our friends in legal profession. We also included some observations from personal travel experiences.

Disclaimer: We are sketchers and not lawyers. The suggestions we share with you are our understanding. They are not legal or official recommendations. We hope that our international guests will find them helpful, but they are not a guarantee.

During an interview with a Border Control officer, please keep these in mind.

1. Emphasize your trip is a visit
2. State that the purpose of your visit is to participate in Urban Sketchers Symposium
3. State period of time you plan to stay in United States
4. Have a receipt of payment for the Symposium
5. Have proof of a return ticket
6. Have hotel reservation info or info about where and with whom you are staying  
7. Have a proof of a job back home, if it applies to you. A letterhead with company name stating your return date to work, if possible.
8. State that you have family back at home, if it applies to you
9. If traveling to additional destinations before or after the Symposium, have a copy of your itinerary
10. If asked about your health, answer that you are generally healthy
11. The Border Control officer may ask you to unlock your phone and/or give access to your laptop. Allow the officer access to your device. If you have private or sensitive data on your device, make a backup copy of your drive at home and delete this data from the device. You can restore it back at home or download from cloud/network after you passed border processing.
12. Do not carry questionable items, meats, seeds

During Border Control and Customs process, please be patient and polite, follow all of the directions asked and supply any documents to give the Border Control a clear idea that you are only visiting. Answer all questions truthfully and concisely; long explanations may create more questions. Humor does not work well with border officers, the border entry officers are generally focused on their jobs and are not chatty. Keep in mind: border agents are overworked, underpaid and sometimes stressed because directions they receive can change quickly and unpredictably.

We wish you safe and easy travels and cannot wait to welcome everyone in Chicago!

Eats and Drinks for Symposium

USk Chicago after sketching in Chinatown

Chicago is a foodie town! We have everything: from food trucks to 5 star restaurants, from hotdogs to every cuisine in the world.

We love to eat and we love to eat well. And we want our Symposium guests to eat well too. We prepared a selection of eating and drinking establishments close to the Symposium and tried to have something for every budget and every taste. 

Bon Appétit!

Eats

Budget: 

At a counter - Don Colley

Goddess and the Baker and Peaches and Greens 

33 S Wabash Ave 

all day cafes of baked goods, salads, soups, beer and wine

Freshii

111 W Jackson blvd (closet to Roosevelt, but has several locations
health conscious menu of salads, soups, burritos and more

Naf Naf Grill 

28 S Wabash. 

Modern middle eastern; quick bites, schwarma, falafel

Good Stuff Eatery

22 S Wabash 

creative burgers with vegetarian options

Potbelly Sandwich Shop

several locations, 300 S Michigan location is the same building as the American Academy of Art

Counter served soups, sandwiches and salads

Mariano’s Lake East 

333 E Benton Pl (upper Randolph)

Unique Grocery store with many prepared food stations

The Walnut Room

111 N State st. 7th floor
Macy's building is a Chicago landmark from 1907

Latinicity

108 N State St

Mexican, Latin American. A food court with many stations.

Moderate prices:

Pizano's Pizza & Pasta

864 N State St 

Pizza Restaurant

Brightwok Kitchen

21 E Adams St

Asian Fusion, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian

Nandos Peri Peri

22 S Wabash

South African inspired cuisine 

Ema

74 W Illinois

Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern cuisines with a Californian influence 

RPM Italian 

52 W Illinois 

Italian small plates 

Ramen San

59 W Hubbard 

Ramen & Asian style small plates

Hub 51

51 W Hubbard

Diverse menu from sushi to burgers

The Gage 

24 S Michigan ave  

Inventive American eatery with a long list of beers

The Berghoff 

17 W Adams

117 year old Chicago icon serving traditional German and Contemporary cuisine

Cochon Volant

100 W Monroe St

French, Breakfast & Brunch, American

Mercat a la Planxa

638 S Michigan Ave, Renaissance Blackstone Chicago Hotel

Sushi and small plates

Sofi Restaurant

616 S Dearborn St

Italian

Umai

730 S Clark St

Japanese, Sushi, drinks

McDonald's - Harold Goldfus

Expensive:

Trattoria No. 10

10 N Dearborn St

Italian

Everest Room

440 S Lasalle in the Chicago stock exchange building . 

French prix fixe menu and stunning views of the city

Terzo Piano

159 E Monroe. Tucked away in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago 

Italian, Mediterranean

Russian Tea Time

77 E Adams St

Coffee & Tea, Russian, Vegetarian

Boleo

122 W Monroe St

Cocktail Bars, Argentine, Peruvian

Adamus

10 s Wabash

Latin contemporary with gorgeous decor

Outside the Loop

Magnificent mile : 835 N Michigan Ave

Foodlife food court - lower level Water Tower Shopping center, 15 food stations to choose from - one bill

Little Italy:

Tufanos 1073 Vernon park circa 1930
old School Italian, delicious food in large portions (budget to moderate priced)

Pilsen (artist's studio area) :

Pleasant house 2119 S Halsted

Rustic cafe with a British twist. The meat pies are the best!

Chinatown:

Ming Hin 2168 S Archer ave

Famous for their Dim Sum available 8am-4pm and 9pm - 2am late night bites!

Greektown

Greek Islands on 200 S Halsted. So many great restaurants in this area! Hard to choose!

West Loop:  

This area is a huge corridor of restaurants that attract foodies day and night so it is generally very busy

Drinks

Bars / taverns

At a bar - Adriana Gasparich

Designated tavern hangout for our Symposium is:

Exchequer Restaurant and Pub

226 S Wabash (steps from Roosevelt!).

Serving cocktails, pizza, ribs and more

Open 11-11pm and 12am on weekends
Discount with Symposium Badge!

Buddy Guy’s Legends

700 S Wabash Ave

Jazz & Blues, Music, Sandwiches. Go there for an excellent blues scene, very Chicago.

The 95th Floor

875 N Michigan Ave - Hancock center

Good drinks and best views of the city. Go there for drinks and views, but go somewhere else to eat – touristy and overpriced for what you get.

Drawing Room

12 S Michigan Ave
Coffee, cocktails, American fare

Three Dots and a Dash

435 N Clark St

Asian Fusion, Tiki Bars

Plymouth Rooftop Bar & Grill

327 S Plymouth Ct

Cavanaugh’s in Monadnock Building

53 W Jackson Blvd

Amazing chance to be in the one of the first skyscrapers ever built. It is constructed entirely from stone. Historic landmark and architects' dream.


Not to overlook:

Stan's Donuts
26 E Roosevelt Rd

Stan's Donuts - MJ Ernst

Postcards from Chicago: #5 Marina City Towers

by Wes Douglas

As we look forward to the 8th International Symposium, I will continue to take you on a virtual tour of my favorite views of Chicago which I have named "Postcards from Chicago." Each week I will post a different scene of Chicago – some may be familiar to you and some may be less familiar – and by the time I am done it should be time for the Symposium. To help me illustrate the popularity of this sculpture, I am happy to feature the work of Chicago Urban Sketchers Alex Zonis, Don Yang, Joel Berman.

The Marina City complex was designed in 1959 by architect Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1964 at a cost of $36 million, financed to a large extent by the union of building janitors and elevator operators, who sought to reverse the pattern of “white flight” from the city’s downtown area. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a city within a city, featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theatre, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, several stores and restaurants, and, of course, a marina.

Marina City was the first urban post-war high-rise residential complex in the United States and is widely credited with beginning the residential renaissance of American inner cities. Its model of mixed residential and office uses and high-rise towers with a base of parking has become a primary model for urban development in the United States and throughout the world, and has been widely copied throughout many cities internationally. Marina City construction employed the first tower crane used in the United States.

Spotlight Sunday - Daniel Young

Spotlight Sunday is a series of interviews designed to introduce and highlight Chicago Urban Sketchers individually.  Now that our chapter has over 500 members it has become more of a challenge to meet every sketcher in person and have a conversation.  These posts concentrate on individuals and speak in their own words and sketches.

Meet Daniel Young!

Interviewed by Alex Zonis

About a week or so back I sent Daniel my interview questions, a set similar to the one all our interviewees get.

Instead of answering my questions in sequence Daniel sent me a story. I know Daniel for a couple of years, so I was only briefly surprised: being unique is his normal way of being.

So I have for you - Daniel Young, his self portrait, his story and work.

Daniel Young self-portrait

Daniel Young:

One of my goals in biking across country was to return to Chicago (the best city in the country, IMO) and turn some of my photos into paintings. But upon returning I soon faced the fact that my vision for the paintings was way beyond my ability to paint them.

I had always been into the arts, but pencil was always my choice of tools and still to this day it's the medium I feel most comfortable using. Which is why I'm enjoying things like the ball point pen. If I'm comfortable, I'm not growing.

Okay - the solution was easy. Learn to paint. The first step for me in learning how to paint Well was to return back to the basics and learn how to draw well.

I already knew that meant practice practice, practice. So I was happy to read an article, posted by Alex saying that "Talent" was about 10,000 hours of practice. That equates to about 5 years, and at 57 years old I needed to get a move on it.

So I started drawing everything, all the time, even earning the name "the guy that draws all the time". Also after returning to Chicago, re-entry into a non-nomadic life proved to be a bit more challenging than I originally anticipated, so drawing became a great escape for me.

People are my favorite subject matter and I love coffee, so Starbucks was the perfect blend.. It was at a Starbucks that Hope Hanley first introduced me USK.

For me, sketching had become an adventure. An adventure very close to cycling; each moment was completely brand new and you never know who or what you'll run into around the corner or over the next hill. But up to this point I had never met another sketcher. Why was I the only one out there drawing? I chalked it up to not owning a TV or a smartphone. And kept drawing. But to have Hope give me hope that there were others out there too. I wasn't the only one! I have to admit I leaned against the table to maintain my balance which had all the sudden gone wacky due to my weak knees. And I'm not kidding. The ceiling to Starbucks opened up to angels sang Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah.

Need I say more? I've been hooked ever since.

This group has such a wide variety of artists, I'm constantly being pushed in new directions as I travel with them in their adventures  And that THRILLS me. You can't help but to become a better artist, just by being around them. 

USK has also changed my vision on what painting is all about.

Plein air painting in the park by the Zoo.
The artist in the painting is Charlie Critchelow.

Alex Zonis: Thank you for sharing your story, your talent and your sketches with us, Daniel. I happen to know that you will be co-hosting our sketch meet next week, this is just great - our sketchers can meet you in person!

Spotlight Sunday - Chris Buczinsky

Spotlight Sunday is a series of interviews designed to introduce and highlight Chicago Urban Sketchers individually.  Now that our chapter has over 500 members it has become more of a challenge to meet every sketcher in person and have a conversation.  These posts concentrate on individuals and speak in their own words and sketches.


Chris Buczinsky - sketcher, artist, teacher
Interview by Alex Zonis

Alex Zonis: Thank you for agreeing to do a Spotlight interview, Chris.  Let's start with how you pronounce your last name. Several sketchers asked me… :)

Chris Buczinsky: You pronounce it in three syllables: BUZZ as in the sound a bee makes. INN as in an inn in Indonesia. And SKI as in the winter sport. BUZZ-INN-SKI.

How did you first hear about the Urban Sketchers community and what made you decide to join Urban Sketchers Chicago?

I first heard about urban sketching through the book The Art of Urban Sketching, which showed me just how good you could get at this game! But a blonde, Russian painter in my Tuesday night portrait drawing class (Alex Zonis) alerted me to the presence of a Chicago chapter. It was all very Romantic, like being let in on the French Resistance in WWII. 

When did you start sketching?

I began drawing while writing my dissertation for my Ph.D. in English literature at Northwestern. Graduate school overdeveloped my left-brain, threatening to permanently tilt me in that direction. Ever since then, I have needed drawing to balance me out. I started by drawing from solely my imagination. I illustrated a children’s book which I self-published, but when I realized I wouldn’t improve if I drew only from my imagination, I began drawing from life.  I started a regular sketching practice later, when my son was on the swim team in high school—about 7 years ago. I was more interested in the people watching than in the swimmers swimming—even when my own son was racing! I was a lousy swim Dad.

Why do you sketch?

I sketch to practice my drawing skills, of course. I do it for relaxation, partly. It also keeps me in the moment, slows me down, teaches me to attend to the world and to others.  It’s a nice record too—of day-to-day life and vacations—cities I’ve visited, plane flights I’ve endured, hikes I’ve taken. Ultimately, I’m trying to capture my feeling for the day-to-day beauty of things.

What are your favorite subjects to sketch?

I like people. All kinds. I love how we all can’t help broadcasting who we are without even speaking a word. I especially like children—but they are always moving so fast! I love old people because of all the lines in their faces—and they’re slower! And I love drawing women, all their wonderful hairstyles and patterned dresses.

I love festivals and fairs, the sensory overload of them. I’m a big fan of the Brookfield Zoo, and I reserve some sketchbooks just for my visits. My favorites are the giraffes, rhinos, and seabirds--especially the penguins. In the summer I garden. I grow vegetables, draw them, and then eat them; I get everything I can out of my veggies!

What are your favorite sketching tools?

I love my Derwent Sketching Pencil (HB). It has a large-diameter lead that I can sharpen for details but blunt for quick, mass drawing. It also has a nice heft—big enough for my big hands. I use it to rough-in quickly, and then go in with a Tombow 2B if I’m adding value or 2H if I’m just doing some line work or I want to add color.

I use Moleskin Watercolor Sketchbooks of all sizes. They open up nicely, they have a handy back pocket, and their covers repel water.  When I have time to watercolor, I use Holbein’s Pro Compo Travel Kit.  It holds twelve 5 ml tubes of watercolors, two brushes (2 and 8) with a brush holder, a pan, and a foldout palette. It’s totally cool, like an artist’s survival kit.

What is your “day” job? What do you do when you are not sketching?

I teach English—writing and literature—at Calumet College of St. Joseph, a small Catholic college south of Chicago, in Whiting, Indiana. I spend my days lesson planning, teaching, grading, advising, and attending meetings. It’s a great job for an artist. I have to read a lot, so I get to learn. Teaching young adults also helps keep me young. And I sketch at the meetings. I sketch my students when they take exams, and I hire students to sit for me, early in the morning, before the day starts. And of course I can devote my summers to art.

Do you have a website, blog or social media accounts where people can see more of your work?

I have a website, a blog of sorts, which I mainly post to during the summer months, when I am not teaching. It’s www.kryztographics.com. It’s the one place in my life where my drawing and writing come together in a meaningful way.

And something else.

I began my adult interest in art by illustrating for children and by making naïve paintings in acrylic sgraffito. This month I’ll be traveling to Guatemala on a mission trip with my school. I’ll be doing lots of art with the children in the village of La Labor. It will be my first time visiting Central America, and I’m really looking forward to it.

AZ: This interview was conducted before Chris went on his Mission trip. He is now back from it, and you can ask him about details when you see him on a sketch crawl. He has some cool stories!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and sketches with us, Chris! We will see you on our next sketching event, and I will see you at the next portrait class, thankfully not in 1940's French underground, but in Fine Arts building on Michigan Ave!