The view from my window.

I live in a high-rise apartment/condominium building here in Chicago called Park Tower, and it’s so big that it has a newsletter for its residents. For the most recent issue of TowerTalk, I contributed an article about Lake Shore Drive.

LSD has been called America’s most beautiful urban road. I can see its northernmost end from my window (see photos: morning, above; sunrise, below), built over what used to be water and sand. The story of how it got there involves the man who invented the skyscraper, Chicago’s unbridled ambition at the start of the 20th century, and the city’s long love affair with the lakefront.

Here’s a PDF of the article.

Although I don’t mention it, the road was immortalized in song: Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah in 1971. The song was featured in the 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. See the video remix here.