Guided tours

Chicago&#39;s soft ground forced its builders to improvise. Walls of brick and stone sank under their own weight, so they floated foundations, drove concrete shafts to hard clay, and finally hung the walls from a frame.

This walk reads that story in the Loop&#39;s streets. Start on Michigan Avenue at the Auditorium Building, then pass under the L&#39;s riveted steel tracks. See the Old Colony and Manhattan buildings and the six-foot brick walls of the Monadnock, and hear how iron rails float the Rookery.

Continue down LaSalle Street&#39;s canyon to the Inland Steel Building, with its columns outside the glass. Finish with Louis Sullivan&#39;s cast-iron ornament, the glass-walled Reliance Building, built while an old bank&#39;s floors hung on jackscrews, and Daley Plaza&#39;s Picasso.

Twelve stops, about 2 km and 90 minutes, in English, at your own pace, on public sidewalks and plazas. Start whenever you like; Auditorium Theatre tours are not included.

Chicago Loop Architecture Self-Guided Audio Walk: Reliance, Rookery, Monadnock and the Picasso

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