Where is this view taken from?

July 11, 2009 9:05 AM

Chicagoans: where is this view taken from?
posted by parttimeninja to Travel & Transportation around Chicago, IL (13 answers total)

I'd guess from the north heading south on Lake Shore. Somewhere around here.
posted by nitsuj at 9:18 AM on July 11, 2009

I would actually guess somewhere from the west, south of chicago ave (which is footed by the hancock tower on the right) and north of lake street. maybe the ohio feeder ramp?
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:27 AM on July 11, 2009

Best answer: Good Grief, I mean Hancock tower on the left... Also, that photo is at least 20 years old. I don't think you have an unobstructed view of 333 Wacker like that anymore. So you'll have to line it up with the hancock and the aon builiding (neé Standard oil). Here's a crappy googleview from the ohio feeder.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 9:36 AM on July 11, 2009

Do believe you are right, Lurkey.

Here's a side-by-side comparison from your googleview link. It's the wrong angle, sure, but I think you're spot on.
posted by nitsuj at 9:44 AM on July 11, 2009

Motive magazine's recreation.
posted by steef at 9:45 AM on July 11, 2009 [2 favorites]

Well, if motive magazine agrees with me, then it must be so. And i'll take my duh moment for not recognizing the Ferris Bueller clip off the air thank you.

So okay, i'm still here, part of the reason that I think i'm blind to most of these John Hughes shots is that almost everyone of his damn movies was shot in and around where I grew up. I took my AP tests in the Breakfast Club library, I would go past the Home Alone house almost every day in highschool and some outdoor scenes in Uncle Buck (oh what a classic) were filmed in front of the Village Hall. As his movies got shittier and shittier, the cache of knowing where each of these increasingly less indelible moments were filmed became not so much amusing trivia, but begruding acceptance that he'd co-opted those places for his own trite imagery.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 10:11 AM on July 11, 2009

Here's a Google Earth link. Pretty close, I think.
posted by eamondaly at 10:18 AM on July 11, 2009

Cold Lurkey: I took my AP tests in the Breakfast Club library ...

I grew up in that area as well--wasn't that Maine North HS? As I recall, it was turned into a State Police Headquarters or something of the like ... too bad. Seemed like a pretty cool library.
posted by the luke parker fiasco at 11:01 AM on July 11, 2009

Response by poster: Awesome, that was fast! And you guys recognize it from the movie too, heheh ...
posted by parttimeninja at 11:23 AM on July 11, 2009

TLPF, You know, now I'm not so certain... it sure does look like the library at New Trier West, but I can't get the internet to substantiate my claims. Carry on then.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 11:37 AM on July 11, 2009

nice work guys. It's a little sad how sucky Chicago's city planners have let that area become since then.
posted by kickback at 1:25 PM on July 11, 2009

The external shot was indeed the Maine twp high school that was turned into a State Police Headquarters. It's sort of off Golf road and the Tri-State.

As for the library, I'm not sure if it was in that building or some other building. I've been pretty much all over that building, and never have seen the library. But, I have seen that library in some teen movie spoof recently. It's possible they used camera tricks to recreate it, but I kinda don't think so.
posted by gjc at 5:21 PM on July 11, 2009

The library was a set, constructed inside the gym.
posted by dhartung at 9:32 PM on July 11, 2009