Sally A. Kitt Chappell

Chicago has changed a lot in the last decade. When I worked there at the end of the 90s and beginning of the 2000s, there was a good deal of frustration, born from too many ugly buildings and all of the good commissions going to foreign offices, among other things. Things changed for the better pretty quickly in the middle of the last decade, thanks to firms like Studio Gang Architects, which happens to be responsible for transforming the landscape in the foreground of this book's cover photo. It is Lincoln Park Zoo's South Pond, its edges now more "natural" and traversed by walkways, highlighted by a small wooden pavilion. This serves as an example of how Chicago's blossoming architecture scene has impacted landscapes as well as buildings, but also how progress can make even the best guidebook obsolete soon after it comes out (the pond's transformation was completed in 2010, three years after the book was published). Nevertheless, this is an excellent guide to the city's many parks, urban plazas, gardens and boulevards, both old and new.… (mere)