Loop

Chicago’s central business district is nicknamed the ‘Loop’ because of the elevated ‘El’ train tracks that loop around the city center. Amid the skyscrapers and office buildings is the city’s famed Theater District comprising the Cadillac Palace Theatre, Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, Bank of America Theater and the Chicago Theatre, whose glittering marquee is one of the city’s most recognizable icons.

The Loop: Heart of Downtown Chicago

Written by Alan Solomon, with research assistance from the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project.

There's so much here in the heart of Chicago's downtown, even after spinning off the Printers Row neighborhood, Millennium Park and Grant Park to their own chapters, that appreciating everything in The Loop, even in a week, can be a challenge to any visitor.

First, there's the issue of actually defining The Loop. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll call it everything within the 'L' (elevated train) tracks that loop much of the neighborhood, plus a couple of blocks north, south and west. 

Let's get to the essentials.

Public art

Walk along Dearborn Street from Jackson to Washington Street and enjoy Calder's "Flamingo," flanked by government buildings designed by Mies Van Der Rohe; Chagall's "The Four Seasons," near the base of Chase Tower; and the Chicago Picasso -- call it what you will -- in the Daley Center. Joan Miro's sculpture, "Moon, Sun, and One Star (Miss Chicago)," is in a plaza on Washington west of Dearborn, right across from the Picasso.

The Theater District

First, there are the great old movie palaces on Randolph Street, restored to their original brilliance -- the Cadillac Palace and the Oriental (aka the Ford Center for the Performing Arts). On Dearborn, the Goodman Theatre has retained the facades of the Selwyn and Harris Theatres. Finally, there is the queen of theaters, the Chicago (1921), with its iconic marquee, its exterior designed to resemble Paris' Arc de Triomphe and its interior the stuff of dreams. If you can't catch a show there, take a tour. 
 

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