NPR

Touring The Architectural Giants Of Downtown Chicago

Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, gives host Jeremy Hobson a tour of downtown Chicago's architecture.
The Wrigley Building, left, and the Tribune Tower, right, flank either side of the Chicago River along Michigan Avenue. (Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images)

If you visit Chicago, you’re likely to end up at “The Bean.”

That’s what most people call “Cloud Gate,” a sculpture by Anish Kapoor that has become a favorite spot for tourists taking selfies. That’s because the Bean’s mirrored surface reflects back its admirers against a stately backdrop of the skyscrapers that line Millennium Park.

On a recent Monday morning at the Bean, the Chicago Tribune’s Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Blair Kamin (@BlairKamin) says the Bean builds on Chicago’s legacy of modern design.

“I see possibility, I see

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