While historians continue to debate the impact of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 on the city’s future development, architects continue to reach for the sky along Chicago’s iconic shoreline. Out of the ashes rose a shimmering town of glass and steel and stone whose identity is forever associated with its reputation as a innovation laboratory for American design and engineering.

As home to the Home Insurance Building–the world’s first steel-framed skyscraper, completed in 1885–Chicago is generally regarded as the birthplace of the skyscaper. And while the city’s status has been diminshed since the Petronas Towers overtook the Sears Tower in 1998 as the world’s tallest building, Chicago still retains its title as one of the great architectural cities of the world.

Leah and I started our journey by foot to gaze at the Water Tower landmark,

and its companion Pumping Station–two castellated structures of ornate limestone that miraculously survived the deadly fire, and presently anchor Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

We continued to Millennium Park to reflect on Sir Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate (or The Bean as its known to locals),

and admire Frank Gehry’s twisted bandshell at Pritzker’s Pavilion.

From there we spiraled down Gehry’s aluminum-clad BP Bridge…

to reach Lake Michigan, where we traipsed over Lawrence Weiner’s Out of Sight installation…

on our way to the spray of Grant Park’s Buckingham Fountain.

Yet, with so much to see along the Chicago Riverwalk, we opted for a guided boat tour through the Chicago River…

to gain a better understanding of Chicago’s architectural history and diversity–

where art deco…

intersects with post-modernism…

to deliver modernism…

with a flourish.

And while each of the buildings in Chicago’s loop is worthy of a traditional photographic portrait,

sometimes it’s necessary to examine the details more closely…

to see things from a different perspective…

as it may reflect a new reality.

Or sometimes, just looking at things upside-down…

or sideways…

forces us to appreciate the beauty of an architect’s play of form and function.