Zen and IBM Plaza
(Photo: Wabash Avenue Bridge at night. Credit: Looper).
Rachelle, the author of one of Dev’s favorite reads, has been posting an occasional series of progress photos of the sidewalk and street work that’s been ongoing for months on Wabash between IBM Plaza and the forthcoming (ahem) Trump Building. Today’s posting (rachelleb.com: Tubesand & Slabs of Granite) of cute little sand tubers brings to mind something that will soon be lost here, albeit something temporary: quiet.
The fences behind those little sand bags will soon come down as the reconstruction project, necessitated by the forthcoming (ahem) Trump Building, winds down. Traffic will return. Once again back to cars racing, honking, and squealing around the elbow-curve, and that annoying mid-bridge bounce after every heavy truck flies by. And if building management finally does get around to renovating the plaza, itself, next year (not that it will stem the loss of Jenner and Block, or the loss of my current apartment view once they build their new digs at Dearborn and Kinzie), well, there’ll still be the Riverwalk, I suppose.
So if you’re enjoying the extra-contemplative vibe that IBM Plaza and the Wabash Avenue Bridge have been giving off in spades since the road was closed, get it while you can, folks. Come the Holidays, this little oasis of serenity amid the otherwise everpresent Hogtown bustle will be as over as the Sox dry spell.
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I like the little “Tubesand” bags. I will miss being able to wander around the Wabash Bridge with no worries about being run over by a cab.