Skip to site content
The Group Travel Leader Small Market Meetings Going on Faith

Known for Architecture

Chicago Water Tower and Chicago Avenue Pumping Station

Chicago

Few infrastructure buildings are as beautifully crafted as the Chicago Water Tower and the accompanying Chicago Avenue Pumping Station. The tower was designed as a building to encase and protect the 138-foot-tall standpipe that stabilized the influx of fresh lake water for the pumping station. Despite the structure’s simple purpose, its architect, William Boyington, created a masterpiece of yellow-tinged Joliet limestone that became a rallying point for Chicagoans after the Great Fire of 1871.

The Water Tower is a Gothic Revival building featuring minarets and a castlelike design with a tall central tower housing the standpipe. The building was such an important symbol to the city that it was preserved as the city developed the surrounding area.

Now the site includes a small art exhibit, a branch library and the theater for the Tony Award-winning Lookingglass Theatre Company at the renovated Pumping Station.

Groups visiting the Old Water Tower can also expand their architectural sightseeing with a Chicago Architecture Foundation tour to include nearby sites: the Willis Tower, the Hancock Building and the Fourth Presbyterian Church. The Water Tower and Pumping Station are located at the corner of Chicago and Michigan avenues at the heart of the Magnificent Mile, making it an ideal stop before a shopping trip.

www.architecture.org

Boston Avenue United Methodist Church

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma, is famous for its architecture. The city is home to 59 buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Thirty-seven of those buildings are Art Deco, making it the third-highest concentration of the style behind New York City and Miami and the largest concentration west of the Mississippi River.

The most recognizable of Tulsa’s Art Deco buildings and an anchor of the downtown area is the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. When the congregation outgrew its old building in the late 1920s, they wanted to set themselves apart from traditional styles, and Art Deco was the cutting-edge design becoming popular with the area’s oil barons.

The church complex was designed so that every aspect of the architecture had a purpose. The statues on the outside of the building feature both Methodist figures and Americana elements. Inside, the stained glass, a common element in chapels, has become unexpected with bevel settings and Oklahoma-influenced designs that feature earth tones and native flora instead of traditional biblical scenes. The overall plan makes use of elevated angles and designs to draw the eye upward or toward the center of the auditorium, where the pulpit is located.

www.bostonavenue.org

Ashley Ricks

Ashley Ricks is the circulation and marketing manager for The Group Travel Leader Inc.