The Aon Center

This is where I work. Well, today and tomorrow anyway. It is, I believe, the second tallest building in Chicago; it has 83 floors and at least eight banks of elevators. I have an office with a window that overlooks the river, the lake, and the mess of city below. I have a thick credit card-shaped pass that says "Visitor" and demands that it be "surrendered before leaving the premises." There's a picture of a middle-aged man on the door that supposedly says my name: Mike. Apparently he doesn't do much all day long, because since I got here at 9:00 I've only proofed three ads. All for Dell. There are cassette tapes, yes, cassette tapes of 70s and 80s punk bands and some others I've never heard of lining the walls of the office.

Funny story about this building I learned on the architecture tour I took a couple of weeks ago. The building was originally designed to be the world's tallest marble building (apparently Chicago has a bit of a Napoleon complex that it's compensating for with all its tall buildings) -- clad in the same marble as Michaelangelo's David. The weather proved too much for the stone and it had to be re-clad thirty years later in white granite (for, as one might imagine, quite a hefty price). Nevertheless, it is still quite an imposing figure on Chicago's skyline.