Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Indian Lakes Resort

 

IMG_0188  Well, if you’ve read my previous   post you’d know that we were in   Chicago and had visited the   Woodfield Mall. We ate dinner and then came back to the hotel.

  “Maggianos” 

   One of our favorites back at home in St. Louis

hilton

The Indian Lakes Resort was undoubtedly the most unique place I have ever stayed.  The building was designed by a student of Frank Llyold Wright and was created to be a hexagonal pyramid.    Satellite Image:

indianlakes

   The architect wanted to break out of the conventional idea of long and straight hotel corridors and shoe-box shaped rooms.  In essence, the hallways horizontally zig-zag (see video) and the rooms are spacious hexagons with sloping 10 foot ceilings.

  I had a great time exploring the resort and taking photos.  The whole facility was huge and with the zig zag hallways you felt really isolated and it was pretty easy to get lost.  Everything was hexagonal, the ceiling, the room, the flooring in the bathroom, the skylights, the stairs, the pool...but thankfully not the parking spaces.

IMG_0193

Hexagonal stairs

IMG_0200

You could see the hand of Frank Llyold Wright in the atrium, because of how nature was brought inside:

IMG_0215IMG_0202

The rooms on the right of the hallway had floor-to-celling windows that opened on the atrium and the rooms on the left had exterior windows that could give you a view of the golf course.

IMG_0214IMG_0203

IMG_0216IMG_0213

Look closely at the walls on these stairs…the picture was taken so that the stairs were straight-like you’d expect them to be, but in real life it was the stairs that looked tilted.  Just another architectural illusion.

IMG_0210

Private sitting area

IMG_0197IMG_0201

IMG_0198IMG_0207

In the center of the Atrium was a rock with a pond and a fountain on the top, but underneath was a bar called the “cave.”

IMG_0206

  It was a lot of fun to explore the resort, but it was time to do some swimming in the HUGE hexagon pool!

[Photos coming soon]

Leaving for Chicago, Woodfield Mall

   We left this morning for Chicago, IL to attend the 2012 Family Economics Conference hosted by Generations with Vision (Kevin Swanson.)  I don’t have many photos of the drive up, because very frankly it was quite boring Smile.  Nothing but cornfields and about 3 towns-or so it seemed.

IMG_5603IMG_5597

Looked out the back dash and thought this semi looked pretty mean -  Windmills

bogo-march7

But this was the highlight of the drive:  BOGO .99c blizzards!

We approached the Chicago suburbs that seemed to go on and on and on.  We were reading a few facts about Chicago and I had no idea that it was the 3rd largest city in the US.  It didn’t seem too big at first, but once we hit the suburbs they went on and on and never seemed to end.

march7-2

We checked in at our hotel which actually ended up being a full-blown resort and conference center-more on that later.  We unloaded our luggage…well, in reality the bellhop unloaded our luggage…and we got unpacked.  Mom had an idea of a few things we could see nearby, so we drove to Woodfield Mall. 

These are just a few random photos taken on the drive there:

IMG_5605IMG_0172

Sam “Tornatore”  -  Woodfield Mall

 

If you noticed in the picture of the hotel above, the rooms are all hexagonal and this theme was also used in the mall:

IMG_0095

The design and layout of this mall was a lot different than the ones I’ve visited::

IMG_0141

Hexagonal elevator car

IMG_0165

IMG_0142IMG_0103IMG_0153

IMG_0100IMG_0161

These walkway ramps were everywhere in the mall

 

IMG_0148

Oh, the light from this store seemed to shine as a beacon to the masses to enter into plastic paradise…and leave with an empty billfold.

IMG_0110IMG_0121

The first thing you saw as you walked in was that the light was coming from a giant yellow brick.

IMG_0113IMG_0120

So many choices!

A few photos from their displays:

IMG_0126

A set based upon the Robie House designed by the Chicago architect, Frank Llyold Wright.

IMG_0130

IMG_0134

IMG_0133IMG_0132

IMG_0139IMG_0128

Pictures I took as we walked through the mall:

IMG_0092IMG_0093

IMG_0105IMG_0094

This is something you will not see in St. Louis!

IMG_0089IMG_0151

Clever advertising is so cool…  - GLOWING Golden Arches

IMG_0170

The Disney Store

IMG_0171

  I knew this idea would be addressed by Kevin Swanson at the conference!

  For those of you who listen to Generations Radio: “…up from 30% in 1970!”

 

IMG_0163IMG_0157

IMG_0168

Day continues in next post…