Whenever I walked past this sculpture...

...on the wall of an engineering building at the University of Illinois at Chicago all I could ever think was, I wonder if the artist ever thought this piece would become a home to so many birds.

But in January one of my favorite shows, Chicago Tonight, ran a segment on the Italian-born local artist, Virginio Ferrari, who completed "Super Strength" (above) in 1996. When we hiked miles 17-20 of the Chicago Marathon course last night I was able to capture it in the golden hour just before sunset.

Before we got there we ate dinner at Carm's on Polk Street just a few blocks from 1212 W. Flournoy. After dining on hot dogs, cheeseburgers and Italian beef the nine of us set out on the eighth leg of our journey. (If we complete the last six miles in the next two weeks that will make ten legs, not nine as I had originally planned. Where did that extra leg come from?)

When you get to the East Campus of UIC at the end of Polk Street you come upon another sculpture known as "Slabs of the Sunburnt West" (1975) by another local artist, Richard Hunt. Inspired by a 1922 Carl Sandburg poem of the same name, it's made of welded bronze and measures 30 feet by 30 feet.  

Mile 17 of the Marathon course is on Halsted, right in front of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. (That's actually the Student Center right next to it.) The building, which was originally a three-story Italianate mansion built by real estate tycoon Charles Hull, is the only remaining structure of what was once a 13-building complex.

We had left off there last week and resumed our trek south on Halsted to Taylor. After turning right (west) on Taylor we encountered "Super Strength" before entering the Little Italy neighborhood which begins at about Morgan. On this stretch of Taylor Street can be found Tuscany, Mario's Italian Lemonade, Al's Italian Beef, RoSal's, a podiatrist named Frank Zappa (I kid you not), Scafuri Bakery, Gallucci Realty, Davanti Enoteca, Francesca's, Chiarugi Hardware, Bacci Pizzeria, the National Italian American Sports Hall Of Fame (which, contrary to what some local non-Italian said, is not in fact a small building), the Piazza DiMaggio (complete with a sculpture of the Yankee Clipper himself), Conte Di Savoia Italian grocery store, Rosebud (where you can often see goodfellas and wiseguys at the next table), and finally Pompei, just before Ashland. They don't call the neighborhood Little Italy for nothing!

We turned left (south) on Ashland and walked a pretty nondescript mile or so to 18th Street in Pilsen. The Illinois Medical District was to our right (west), Adams/Medill Park was to our left (east), and the twin towers of St. Adalbert's Catholic Church was off in the distance to the southwest. When we turned left (east) on 18th we entered the Pilsen equivalent of Taylor Street. I told the guys that the neighborhood was originally Bohemian (hence the name Pilsen), then became largely Mexican, but is now turning bohemian again, only this time with a lower case "B." (What were once called "beatniks" in the 1950s and "hippies" in the 1960s are now known as "hipsters." But they are all "bohemians.") Rather than list all the Mexican establishments along 18th Street, allow me to recommend Taqueria Los Comales, Coyotes, the Frida Room, Cafe Jumping Bean, Azul 18 and, farther down the street, Dia De Los Tamales.

When we came to the corner of 18th and Allport one of the guys put me on the spot and asked me how I would describe the architecture in the neighborhood. On our right was Thalia Hall and to the left was St. Procopius Catholic Church. I noted the rounded arches of each which would be characteristic of Romanesque, although the spire of St. Procopius reminded me of the later Gothic style. The heavy stones that make up Thalia Hall are also typical of Romanesque so I took a chance and suggested the architect may have been Henry Hobson Richardson, who designed a number of works in Chicago. Alas, Mr. Richardson died in 1886, six years before Thalia Hall was completed.

Turns out that Thalia Hall, which houses Dusek's Board & Beer (arguably the nicest restaurant in Pilsen) was built in 1892 by the architects Faber & Pagel, who modeled it after the Prague opera house, which has been described as neo-Renaissance.


St. Procopius, on the north side of the street, was built in 1883 by a Mr. P. Huber in the -- yes! -- Romanesque style. (I actually took that picture of the church last week when the sun was still up.)

At the corner of 18th and Racine is Honky Tonk BBQ, which I understand is quite good, and a few steps down is La Vaca Margarita Bar, which may have the best tacos I have ever eaten. A little farther, just before Carpenter, is HaiSous (is that a play on "Jesus"?) Vietnamese Kitchen which has an interesting Vietnamese coffee house connected to it. With the La Catrina Cafe, just after Miller Street, and Kristoffer's Cafe & Bakery on Halsted, one notices the lack of a Starbucks in the neighborhood. Although I suspect Pilsen will eventually go the way of, say, Wicker Park, in the not too distant future, right now it is definitely pre-gentrified.

Before leaving 18th Street I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Pilsen Community Books (a very cool used bookstore), Simone's, on the corner of 18th and Morgan, where my wife and I can often be found enjoying a cheeseburger and a beer on a late Friday afternoon, and the barber shop (somewhere) where I got my hair cut once for only five dollars!

After Simone's there's a ton of empty land between Morgan and Halsted. People in the suburbs always look surprised when I tell them how much empty land there is in the city, but it's true. And if they ever build "up" Chicago will be able to accommodate many more people than the approximately 2.7 million inhabitants right now. Mark my words: the city is only going to get nicer and nicer.

At Halsted Street we reached Mile 20 of the Marathon course and caught the Number 8 bus for home. After hiking through two of the city's most ethnically identified neighborhoods -- Italian and Mexican -- next week we'll be passing through another, Chinatown. That should take us to State and 33rd, within spitting distance of "Sox Park" and the final leg back to Grant Park.