Bryan W. Alaspa 1Don’t mess with our buildings…yet
July 17th 2009 13:28
Chicago gets very defensive about what you call our buildings. We don’t take to change very well around here. Things that have been named something for a long time here in Chicago, and we have been around a long time so there are lots of things with old names, are supposed to stay that way, dammit. This is especially true of our skyline.
I have been a White Sox fan for most of my life. Sure, there are a few pictures of me in Cubs gear, but that was before I really knew what was happening and dressed myself. Once I had consciousness, I became a Sox fan. When I first started going to games the Sox played in a very old stadium known as Comiskey Park. That changed in the 90s when the old stadium was torn down and they built a shiny new one across the street. For a while it was still Comiskey Park, but then, somewhere along the line, it became U.S. Cellular Field.
People got upset. Lots of people still insist on calling the place Comiskey Park or Sox Park. The funny thing is, I have a feeling that Charlie Comiskey, a man notorious for being money-hungry and cheap and looking for a buck, probably would have sold the name for his stadium years ago had the trend existed back then. I am quite sure he would have called it Firestone Park, or whatever, back in 1920 had that thing been done back then.
These days nothing that was traditional in Chicago is named what it always was. What’s funny is what Chicagoans choose to get mad over and which names they do not. When Macy’s came into town and bought up the Marshall Field’s stores, people were outraged. They literally cut up their Macy’s Cards or Marshall Field’s cars in front of the old Marshall Field building downtown. These days the building still has the metal plate naming the building the Marshall Field Building but the name over the awning is Macy’s. Sometimes you still get someone grumbling, but we have kind of come to accept it.
I think that had to do with Macy’s being associated with New York. Chicagoans may visit New York, but we hate New York at the same time the way a younger brother will often be jealous of a more successful older brother. At the same time, the tall white Tower in the center of the skyline, when I was young, was the Standard Oil Building. Then, for a long time, it was the Amoco Building. More recently, it has become the Aon Center. Did anyone burn anything when that changed? I would have had I realized what a miserable and horrible company Aon was when it first changed, but generally speaking, no one did. Why? I guess no one saw a New York connection.
These days everyone is up in arms over the Sears Tower now changing its name to Willis Tower. The fact that Sears has not been in the building for over a decade seems not to matter much to Chicagoans. They want that tall building to be Sears Tower. I have to admit, to me, it probably always will be, at least for a while. Eventually even Chicagoans get used to a thing. Most people call the south side baseball stadium The Cell and some even call Marshall Fields Macy’s.
Chicagoans also love to give nicknames to their buildings. The Cell, as I mentioned earlier, is now where the Sox play. Already there people who want to give the Sears Tower/Willis Tower a nickname.
They call it the Big Willie.
I have been a White Sox fan for most of my life. Sure, there are a few pictures of me in Cubs gear, but that was before I really knew what was happening and dressed myself. Once I had consciousness, I became a Sox fan. When I first started going to games the Sox played in a very old stadium known as Comiskey Park. That changed in the 90s when the old stadium was torn down and they built a shiny new one across the street. For a while it was still Comiskey Park, but then, somewhere along the line, it became U.S. Cellular Field.
People got upset. Lots of people still insist on calling the place Comiskey Park or Sox Park. The funny thing is, I have a feeling that Charlie Comiskey, a man notorious for being money-hungry and cheap and looking for a buck, probably would have sold the name for his stadium years ago had the trend existed back then. I am quite sure he would have called it Firestone Park, or whatever, back in 1920 had that thing been done back then.
These days nothing that was traditional in Chicago is named what it always was. What’s funny is what Chicagoans choose to get mad over and which names they do not. When Macy’s came into town and bought up the Marshall Field’s stores, people were outraged. They literally cut up their Macy’s Cards or Marshall Field’s cars in front of the old Marshall Field building downtown. These days the building still has the metal plate naming the building the Marshall Field Building but the name over the awning is Macy’s. Sometimes you still get someone grumbling, but we have kind of come to accept it.
I think that had to do with Macy’s being associated with New York. Chicagoans may visit New York, but we hate New York at the same time the way a younger brother will often be jealous of a more successful older brother. At the same time, the tall white Tower in the center of the skyline, when I was young, was the Standard Oil Building. Then, for a long time, it was the Amoco Building. More recently, it has become the Aon Center. Did anyone burn anything when that changed? I would have had I realized what a miserable and horrible company Aon was when it first changed, but generally speaking, no one did. Why? I guess no one saw a New York connection.
These days everyone is up in arms over the Sears Tower now changing its name to Willis Tower. The fact that Sears has not been in the building for over a decade seems not to matter much to Chicagoans. They want that tall building to be Sears Tower. I have to admit, to me, it probably always will be, at least for a while. Eventually even Chicagoans get used to a thing. Most people call the south side baseball stadium The Cell and some even call Marshall Fields Macy’s.
Chicagoans also love to give nicknames to their buildings. The Cell, as I mentioned earlier, is now where the Sox play. Already there people who want to give the Sears Tower/Willis Tower a nickname.
They call it the Big Willie.
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