When culprits known and unknown almost turned The City That Works into The City That Floats, everyone made a not-so-happy discovery: There are bunches of tunnels underneath Chicago. Trouble was, they were sucking in the Chicago River like soapy water down the bathtub drain.
What other disasters or treasures lie underfoot, we wondered? Or overhead, for that matter? Everybody knows eye level; a bird`s- or worm`s-eye view might prove enlightening. So here is our selective lineup of some attractions high and low.
Sky things
Eric Walker caught the flying bug in his teens when pilot and TV weatherman Jim Tilmon, who was also a friend of the family, took the youngster from Kenwood Academy up for a tour of the skies.
Twenty years later, Walker is taking the Tilmon role and expanding it as the owner and operator of Chicago By Air Inc., the only airplane tour of the lakefront that operates out of Meigs Field.
On a sample flight, Walker piloted a Cessna 172 down the Meigs runway into a 10-knot breeze out of the north. In no time, the flight passed over the Adler Planetarium and climbed to about 1,500 feet, then headed north, just above eye level with the John Hancock Observatory.
”On our champagne flights, I go about 10 miles south first of all, almost to the Bethlehem Steel plant,” said Walker. ”Then we`ll turn around and head all the way up to Wilmette, where you can see all the beautiful lakefront homes and the Bahai Temple while you`re sipping champagne.”
The champagne flight lasts about 45 minutes and will set two people back $165; add a third passenger for $40 more. A half-hour sightseeing flight is $140 for two, add a third for $40. Chicago By Air has access to 10 Cessna 172s as well as multi-engine craft for longer charters.
Chicago By Air Inc. operates from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily out of Meigs Field, just south of the Adler Planetarium. For reservations and information, call 708-524-1172. For other air charters and tours in the Chicago area, check the Yellow Pages under ”Air Charter.”
Tomb with a view
You cheerily pass through a stone entranceway lined with hieroglyphics. The occasionally raucous sounds of crowds in the Field Museum echo and slowly fade as you enter the courtyard of limestone. Exploring deeper into the structure, you are instructed to stop and peer down an opening to the underworld.
There, staring back up at you, is the cold, dead face on an Egyptian sarcophagus. You will soon be joining it.
Visitors to the Field`s ”Inside Ancient Egypt” exhibit descend 35 feet into the reconstructed tomb of Unis-Ankh, the son of a pharoah, who passed from this world more than 4,000 years ago. The tomb includes two authentic chambers or chapel rooms, the original 14,000-pound limestone ”false door”
as well as antechambers, storage rooms, burial shaft and chamber and courtyard.
Numerous sarcophagi, votive offerings and other Old Kingdom artifacts are displayed within the tomb; a diorama in exquisite and grisly detail shows the 70-day mummification process.
With a deep sigh of relief, visitors pass out of the tomb and into
(simulated) daylight and a Nile Valley scene complete with living marsh and canal. A wealth of Egyptian art objects, the nearly 4,000-year-old royal boat of a later pharoah and other exhibits highlight this section of ”Inside Ancient Egypt”; this, too, is below ground, but it`s the dark corners of Unis-Ankh`s tomb that thrill and chill.
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”Inside Ancient Egypt” is free with regular admission to the Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive. For more information, call 312-922-9410.
Low art
Downstairs at the Art Institute of Chicago is too often the destination for museumgoers desperately seeking the restrooms and nothing more. In fact, the lower level houses one of the most avant-garde of the museum departments- photography-and the tiny marvels that are the Thorne Miniature Rooms.
A small retrospective of the works of Lucas Samaras occupies one section of the photography galleries through Aug. 23. Samaras came to prominence in the late 1960s with a series of bizarre, obsessive Polaroid self-portraits that flaunted highly theatrical lighting and busy, colorful patterning.
From the vast, somber recesses of a European cathedral 4 feet high to the amazing detail of the reproductions of modern paintings, none more than 2 inches high, that line the walls of a 1930s San Francisco interior, the Thorne Miniature Rooms have delighted and impressed museumgoers here for more than 50 years.
In 1989, the Art Institute completed a major conservation program for the 68 rooms, each of which precisely replicates an American, European or Asian interior at a scale of 1 inch equals 1 foot. The new downstairs gallery for the Thorne rooms, designed by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, will showcase their splendors for another 50 years.
Also downstairs, the Kraft General Foods Education Center opens Sept. 19 after four years of planning and construction. Multi-use spaces for family workshops, artist demonstrations and lectures, galleries, storytelling and interactive video and film are just part of this new facility, which will enable children, families and adults to learn about art in innovative ways.
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Photography galleries and the Thorne Miniature Rooms are free with regular admission to the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue at Adams Street. Call 312-443-3600. For more information on the education center, call the Education Department at the same number.
Deep ends
With a bit of imagination, you can travel 20,000 leagues under the sea, or 50 feet down into the earth in a coal mine, at the Museum of Science and Industry.
The U-505 submarine, captured in 1944 off the coast of West Africa by a U.S. Navy task force (but not before it had sunk eight Allied ships), resides in permanent dry dock on the east side of the museum. There, the curious and the not-too-claustrophobic can explore the cramped confines where 60 German sailors toiled during World War II.
One of the first exhibits installed at the museum (in 1933) and one of the most popular, the Coal Mine replicates an actual southern Illinois mine, with 8-foot-high walls made of Illinois No. 6 seam coal.
Visitors descend some 50 feet in a real hoist (actually taking you from first floor to ground floor level, but use your imagination) to the bottom of the shaft. There, you`ll see coal that has been loaded onto mine trains. Demonstrations of older and modern methods for mining coal follow when you board a mine train.
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For more information, call the Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street at Lake Shore Drive, at 212-684-1414.
Below the belugas
With the addition of its spectacular Oceanarium, the already popular Shedd Aquarium shot to the lead in the Chicago cultural institution sweepstakes in number of visitors. And one of the best spots to get nose to nose with a beluga whale or Pacific white-sided dolphin is the below-ground viewing area, the last stop on the Oceanarium tour.
Exhibits on the physiology of marine life and sea otter habitats vie for attention with the real thing, as the belugas gracefully amble past the other side of the glass. Oceanarium and aquarium both offer the illusion that you`re far below the waves in your own private Atlantis.
Call the Shedd at 312-939-2438.
Towering titans
The battle of the titans has heated up this year, as the Sears Tower has undertaken renovation and expansion of its Skydeck, going so far as to add a new 100th floor observatory to the original skydeck on the 103rd floor.
That should go a long way toward making the trip to the top of the Sears more enjoyable: As recent visitors know, the lines can be awfully long, the observatory can be awfully crowded and the whole experience can be, well, not awful but not always the world-class treat you would expect from the world`s tallest building.
Those negatives have for years led those in the know to prefer, for leisurely sightseeing, the top of the John Hancock Center. At 1,127 feet high, the Hancock is a little more than 300 feet shorter than the Sears, but the view, profiting immensely from a location close to the lake, is in many ways superior, and it`s always far less crowded than the Sears.
Plus there`s the added advantage of the child-free option: in the Images Lounge on the 96th floor, you can relax over a cocktail and drink in the view. The prices are steep, but on the other hand, there`s no admission charge. (The 95th Restaurant is just below you; see the item on restaurants with a view.)
The Sears people have added an area with photographic exhibits on Chicago cuisine, museums, music, sports and more. In a refurbished 185-seat theater, newcomers get a five-minute video that briefs them on the city and its views. ———-
For more information on the Sears Tower Skydeck, call 312-875-9696. Call the John Hancock Observatory at 312-751-3680, or the Images Lounge at 312-787-7230.
Bottom lines
The David Dows, a 278-foot, five-masted schooner built in 1881. Sank in a storm in 1889 some seven miles off Calumet Harbor.
The Wells-Burt, a 200-foot schooner with a cargo capacity of 50,000 bushels of corn. Sent to the bottom 3 miles off Evanston`s shore by a violent squall in 1883.
The tug Tacoma, built in 1894, more than 73 feet in length with an 18-foot beam. Sank suddenly in 1929, one mile south of the 68th Street crib.
Though none can be seen except by divers in Lake Michigan, these historic craft are familiar names to members of the Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago, an organization dedicated to the preservation of Lake Michigan wrecks. Sport divers, boaters, historians and hobbyists are among them, and all work to identify newly discovered wrecks and research cargoes, routes and the historical context of each ship`s demise. Weekend expeditions to Lake Michigan shipwrecks take place from May through October.
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For more information, call or write the Underwater Archaeological Society of Chicago, c/o the Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street at North Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60614; 312-642-5035, ext. 298.
High calories
Surprisingly, precious few restaurants make their home in the skies and those that do make you pay; these are upper-crust restaurants. Uppermost among them-in terms of height; we`ll let the food critics debate quality-is The 95th, located logically on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Center. The 95th emphasizes seasonal American cuisine, and the view, as you might expect, is priceless. Call 312-787-9596.
Le Ciel Bleu, at the top of the Mayfair Regent Hotel, offers a splendid panorama from above East Lake Shore Drive and Oak Street Beach. The cuisine is very French, but not rigidly so. Call 312-951-2864.
Chef Jean Joho was recently named one of the top 10 new chefs in America by Food & Wine magazine, and Everest is his domain. Situated 40 floors above the Midwest Stock Exchange at 440 S. LaSalle St., the restaurant looks west while Joho looks back to his native Alsace for a good deal of his inspiration. Call 312-663-8814.
Walk on mild side
Veterans of Chicago winters may already know the Pedway, that labyrinthine, sometimes confusing set of tunnels and lobbies and steps that runs underneath Chicago, linking parking garages, buildings, train stations and subway stops. More than 2 miles all told, it connects much of the Loop, making possible, in theory, a walk from Illinois Center at Columbus and East Wacker Drives all the way to 2 First National Plaza at Clark and Monroe Streets without once stepping outside-a boon when the wind chill is 60 below or the sun is baking the pavement.
There is such a thing as a Pedway map, which is somewhat helpful but not completely so. You can pick one up at the city`s maps and plats department, Room 803 in City Hall at 121 N. LaSalle St. fr
