Chicago »

This handy format showcases Chicago’s greatest sites and views, including four gatefolds of breathtaking panoramic beauty that capture the visual paradoxes and triumphs of this famous city by the lake.
Visalli photographs the architectural masterpieces famous throughout the world―from Louis Sullivan’s ornamental facades to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s sleek office towers―as well as the works of the new generation of the Chicago School of Architecture. But Chicago is about more than buildings: Visalli shoots the dark girders of the El, the taverns open all night, and the pomp of Michigan Avenue. With more than 200 images, Chicago captures the visual paradoxes and triumphs of this great American city.

Publishers Weekly

Freelance photojournalist Visalli's superb color pictures celebrate the architecture, vistas, roadways and artwork of the Windy City. As Kurtis, a Chicago television anchor, notes in the foreword, Chicago rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871, and new edifices were fashioned from incombustible materials like brick, stone, iron and slate. Visalli depicts such older architectural greats as the Adler and Sullivan Auditorium Theater, as well as giant newcomers like the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. Kurtis refers to contemporary slums with their ``wanton'' hunger and violence, but Visalli reveals the fashionable Gold Coast on Lake Shore Drive, sculptures by Calder, Picasso and Henry Moore, the University of Chicago campus, the trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade and the facade of the Art Institute. Curiously, the Baha'i Temple in suburban Wilmette is included among the examples of ``urban'' grandeur. Captions are placed at the end of the book, which is cumbersome. (January 4)