One city. One line.
Chicago Skyline Art
Two colonnades, and the towers standing between them.
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Chicago invented the tall building and most drawings of it are nothing but tall buildings. This one puts a low classical hall at each end and lets the towers rise out of the gap.
What is in the drawing
A long low frontage opens the left, two runs of arcading with a peaked roof set between them, drawn close to the ground and stretched out much further than anything else in the picture. From its right edge the line climbs a tower in three stages, a wide base, a narrower shaft, then a fine spire off the top. A needle rises immediately behind it. The middle belongs to two broad towers with their corners cut away at the roof, plain and flat and much heavier than their neighbours. Past them a peaked crown and a stepped block step down to a bare slab, and the line finishes on a second colonnaded building with a pitched roof and a row of columns beneath it, echoing the one it started from.
Who buys it
Chicago is a city people are from rather than a city people pass through, and the drawing suits that. It goes to somebody who grew up inside the L and now lives somewhere flatter, and the argument about whether the city is better than the one they moved to is usually still running.
Mug or canvas
At 2.09 to 1 this sits a hair inside the mug's printable band, so almost nothing is given up to the curve and the two colonnades stay in view together. It carries very little fine detail, which is what makes it work small: there is nothing delicate enough to close up. The reason to go large is the opposite of the usual one. All that empty space above the roofline is part of the composition, and a wall is where it gets to be empty.
Other cities
Aarhus Abilene Abu Dhabi Adelaide Akron Albany Albuquerque Allentown Amarillo Amsterdam Anaheim Anchorage Ann Arbor Antwerp Arlington Asheville Athens Athens, Georgia Athens, Ohio Atlanta Auckland Augusta Aurora Austin Bakersfield Bali Baltimore Bangkok Barcelona Baton Rouge Beaumont Belfast Belgrade Berlin Billings Birmingham Bogota Boise Boston Boulder Brasilia Bratislava Bridgeport Bristol Brno Brussels Budapest Buenos Aires Buffalo Cairo Cambridge Cape Town Cardiff Casablanca Cedar Rapids Chapel Hill Charleston Charlotte Chattanooga Cincinnati Cleveland College Station Cologne Colorado Springs Columbus Concord Copenhagen Dallas Dayton Delhi Denver Des Moines Detroit Dhaka Dubai Dublin Edinburgh Eindhoven El Paso Elgin Elizabeth Enterprise Evansville Fargo Fayetteville Fayetteville, Arkansas Florence Fort Lauderdale Fort Worth Frankfurt Fresno Glasgow Grand Rapids Green Bay Groningen Guayaquil Hamburg Hampton Hartford Havana Helsinki Ho Chi Minh City Hoboken Hollywood Hong Kong Honolulu Houston Huntsville Indianapolis Iowa City Istanbul Jacksonville Jakarta Jersey City Johannesburg Kansas City Kharkiv Kiev Kingston Knoxville Krakow Kuala Lumpur Lafayette Lakeland Lansing Las Vegas Lexington Lisbon Little Rock London Long Beach Los Angeles Louisville Lowell Luanda Luxembourg City Maastricht Macon Madison Madrid Malmo Manchester Manchester, New Hampshire Manila Melbourne Memphis Mesa Miami Midland Milan Milwaukee Minneapolis Montgomery Montreal Moscow Mumbai Munich Nairobi Nantes Naples Nashville Nassau New Haven New Orleans New York Newark Newcastle Norman Oakland Odessa Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Osaka Oslo Ottawa Oxford Palm Springs Paris Pasadena Peoria Philadelphia Phoenix Phuket Pittsburgh Portland Porto Pottsville Prague Providence Provo Quebec City Raleigh Reykjavik Richmond Riga Rio de Janeiro Roanoke Rochester Rockford Rome Sacramento Salt Lake City Salzburg Samoa San Antonio San Diego San Francisco San Jose San Marino Sandy Springs Santiago Sao Paulo Seattle Seoul Shanghai Shreveport Singapore Sioux Falls Sofia Spokane Springfield Springfield, Illinois St Petersburg St. Louis St. Paul Stockholm Sydney Syracuse Tallahassee Tampa Tempe Tokyo Toledo Topeka Toronto Trenton Tucson Tulsa Vaduz Valencia Valletta Vancouver Venice Vienna Vilnius Virginia Beach Waco Warsaw Washington DC Waterbury West Palm Beach Wichita Wilmington Worcester Yokohama Zurich
The whole catalog runs to 258 cities. See every design.