Lights On but Nobody Home: Behind the Fake Buildings that Power Chicago

Guest Article by Chicago Sun Times columnist, Neil Steinberg

Chicago is justly famous for its architecture. Birthplace of the skyscraper, home to the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (still, the emotion-driven claim by New York’s One World Trade Center, based on the dodge of calling an antenna a spire, is easily dismissed) Chicago offers a panorama of architectural marvels. So many icons that you usually have to live here before you start noticing structures that are not famous and important, but merely intriguing and fun. Such as the charming little fake buildings that electrical company Commonwealth Edison puts up to camouflage its  substations.

Lead image (c) Mike. M

It can take a while, walking past, until you realize that the front doors don’t open. Or what look like windows are actually louvers. What is that? you wonder.

Lights On but Nobody Home: Behind the Fake Buildings that Power Chicago