discover the why of the chicago y symbol-scavenger hunt

Y: It's the second to last letter of the alphabet but of premiere importance in the history of Chicago. Embark on this adventure to find hidden Y shapes and learn why it's still an important symbol for Chicago.

@Chicitigirl is a cartophile and Certified Professional Tour Guide of walking, food, kayak and virtual tours in Chicago. Follow @Chicitigirl on Instagram and Facebook to see Chicago from a local's perspective and learn about in-person and virtual tours.

Go to where Chicago began as a small town. The point is named after the canine that used to roam the area. WPE are the initials of this location today. The photo cue shows what the area looked like in 1833. 

The best way to find this spot is to get to the riverwalk, under the shadow of 333.

Once you get there, take a photo of what it looks like today using the camera or gallery options below. Share them on social media and tag @chicitigirl #YChicago.

In the Beginning

If you found yourself at Wolf Point, you started in the right spot. Wolf Point is where Chicago began as a small town. The first non-indigenous settlers in this area were mostly French and English fur traders who came to the area because it was abundant with beaver. They trapped, skinned, and traded the beaver fur with the tribes in the area using the 3 branches of the Chicago River (Main, North and South). Over time, they set up more permanent homes and a bar was built on the west side, just north of where the red flame-looking sculpture by Santiago Calatrava stands today. 

The 3 river branches were used for trade and divide our land mass into 3 areas: a north side, west side and a south side. This natural formation, so close to Lake Michigan, is why we have a city here today. Therefore, the Y shape that the 3 branches form represents the importance of this natural habitat which lured settlers from afar, making the area a trading post. This Y shape was even used in our first non-official flag in the city. You should be standing in the newest part of the Riverwalk near Wolf Point East. Look at the fence along the Riverwalk. Can you see the Y shape in the metal?

Wolf(Y) Point

Seek your next Y on this Trunnion Bascule structure. They open on Wednesday and Saturday mornings in the spring and fall for tall ships. What is the name of this structure?

 Seek your next Y

Discover another Y on this double-decker highway at the intersection of a street named after a famous French discoverer. You'll find these in multiple locations around the Loop.

Take a selfie with this illuminating pole. 

Discover another Y

Turn around and look to the top of this special house to find a hidden Y in the ornate metal decor. There are 4 of these houses here and they contain the mechanics and gears to operate the opening and closing of the LaSalle Street bridge. 

Take a selfie making the Y symbol.

Find the High Y

Head back into the theatre district to find a Y on stage at the southwest corner of the Lake and Dearborn intersection. It shouldn't be hard to find a Goodman, or woman here. 

Theatre District Y 

Find the hidden Y in our second most photographed landmark in the city, on that "Great Street". Take a photo of yourself there as so many locals and visitors do.

Find the Y in Lights

The Y symbol is critical to Chicago's History. Find the hidden Ys around the Loop & Riverwalk areas and learn Why Chicago became the city it is today.

Discover the WHY of the Chicago Y Symbol-Scavenger Hunt

Y: Es la penúltima letra del alfabeto, pero de vital importancia en la historia de Chicago. Embárcate en esta aventura para encontrar formas de Y ocultas y descubre por qué sigue siendo un símbolo importante para Chicago.

@Chicitigirl es una apasionada de los mapas y guía turística profesional certificada de Chicago, especializada en recorridos a pie, gastronómicos, en kayak y virtuales. Sigue a @Chicitigirl en Instagram y Facebook para ver Chicago desde la perspectiva de una local y conocer los recorridos presenciales y virtuales.

El símbolo de la Y es fundamental para la historia de Chicago. Encuentra las Y ocultas en las zonas del Loop y el Riverwalk y descubre por qué Chicago se convirtió en la ciudad que es hoy.

Descubre el POR QUÉ de la búsqueda del tesoro del símbolo Y de Chicago

sculpture art tour in the loop

The 1960s launched an art renaissance in Chicago with commissions from artists around the world put on display across the city. With photos, text, audio, and video, you'll explore some of the city's most prominent sculptures as well as some that are harder to find to learn about their history and makers. 

Included are @ChiCitiGirl tips for viewing and photos. 

@Chicitigirl is a Certified Professional Tour Guide of walking, food, kayak, and virtual tours in Chicago. Follow @Chicitigirl on Instagram and @To Do In Chicago with Chicitigirl Treks & Bites on Facebook to learn about in-person and virtual tours.

Chicago's Famous Lions guard one of our city's premier museums, The Art Institute, which opened in 1893 in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition, also known as the 1893 World's Fair. 

The 2-ton bronze lions are replicas of plaster lions that were part of several done by Chicago "animalier" sculpture artist Edward Kemeys for the 1893 World's Fair. They arrived at the Art Institute in May of 1894. The north lion is "on the prowl" while the south lion "stands in an attitude of defiance." 

@ChiCitiGirl tip: Find artist Kemeys' signature in the base of the lion. You might need to stand on your tiptoes! Do you see how he also inscribed the year and a caricature? What is the caricature of? Guess below.

South Lion at Art Institute

Here stands "on the prowl" lion. Both quickly became "mascots" of sorts for the city and are adorned in the winter with holiday wreaths and sometimes with hats, jerseys, and helmets of our winning sports teams. 

The photo shows "on the prowl" during the 2016 celebration of the Chicago Cubs baseball team winning the Worlds Series.

Edward often collaborated with his wife, Laura Swing Kemeys.

Watch the video to see the lions being de-throned  for their first major deep cleaning in decades on June 14, 2022.

Take a selfie with one or both of these famous kitty cats! 

Photo credit: Marlin Keesler, Streamwood, IL - Art Institute Lion with CUBS helmet.


North Lion at Art Institute

Cloud Gate was installed in Millennium Park in 2004 and is Indian-born and London-based artist Anish Kapoor's first work in the United States. 168 massive stainless-steel plates to create this 110-ton sculpture. Kapoor's inspiration was liquid mercury which does not have much to do with the city of Chicago besides the fact that the mercury in our thermometers can sometimes swing from summer to winter in one day! 

While the official name of the installation is Cloud Gate, Chicagoans began calling it "The Bean" soon after its arrival in the park. The name has stuck and it is known as "Chicago's Bean" worldwide, allegedly to the artist's chagrin. 

The sculpture is stunning, no matter the weather. 

Watch the video to see how Cloud Gate was made.

@ChiCitiGirl tip: Visit Cloud Gate during twilight hours on a sunny day. As the sun sets and the lights of Michigan Avenue's lights turn on, you're in for an ethereal treat, especially when viewing from the west side of "The Bean."

Cloud Gate at Millennium Park

This Bronze Cow is a replica of a 1999 installation of fiberglass "Cows On Parade" across the city after Chicago businessman Peter Hanig saw a similar display while on a trip to Zurich, Switzerland. He brought the idea back to Chicago where locals and visitors enjoyed the "roaming" art installations of artist-adorned bovines like the ones pictured here. Hanig and anonymous donors later gifted this bronze cow to the city where it guards the entrance of the Cultural Center. 

Some say the cow represents the infamous "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow", rumored to have started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 but later relinquished as the true fire starter. Others posture the cow represents the Union Stockyards of Chicago where for 106 years, up to 20 million cows, pigs and lambs were slaughtered yearly, giving Chicago the nickname of "Hog Butcher to the World."

Notice the cow's eyes. In its left eye is the Chicago Watertower, one of the few surviving structures of the Great Fire, located just 1 mile north on Michigan Avenue. Its right eye reflects another famous statue, "The Picasso" or "Chicago's Picasso," located just 3 blocks west on Washington St. in Daley Plaza.

Guess your location below to verify your location at the intersection of these famous Chicago icons!

Photo credit: Ted Koston, photographer. © 1999 Koston Photography. All rights reserved.

Bronze Cow guards the Cultural Center

Technically "Untitled", this steel sculpture is referred to as "Chicago's Picasso", or "The Picasso" by locals. The city courted famous artist Pablo Picasso to create an art piece to anchor what would become busy Daley Plaza, named after Chicago's former mayor, Richard J. Daley. The 162-ton sculpture arrived in 1967 and is made with Cor-Ten steel, manufactured in nearby Gary, Indiana. An attempt was made to pay Picasso $100,000 for his creation, but he declined, saying it was his gift to the city. 

It's common to see children sliding down its base or a rogue skateboarder. Be sure to step up on it, because, when else will you have the opportunity to stand upon a Picasso classic?!

What do you think it is? Make your guess below.

@ChiCitiGirl Tip: Be sure to walk around to one of the sides and rear where perspective changes and it looks more to be the profile of a face. 

Chicago's Picasso (a.k.a. "The Picasso")

Stand at the northeast corner of Randolph Street and LaSalle. You are standing in what is nicknamed "LaSalle Canyon". LaSalle Street dead ends at the 44-story Chicago Mercantile Exchance (CME) building, formerly the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). The area is known as Chicago's Financial District.

The CME building was built in 1930 and is a stunning example of art deco architecture. The sculpture at the top is the Roman Goddess, Ceres, who represents agriculture, for after all, this is where commodities, like grains, have long been traded in the midwest. 

The aluminum sculpture weighs 6,500 pounds (2948 kilograms) and is 31 feet (9.4 meters) tall, assembled from 40 pieces. Ceres holds a sheaf of wheat in the left and a bag of corn in the right hand. John H. Storrs, the sculptor, did not give her face any detail, for in 1930, when the building was constructed, it was the tallest building in Chicago and since there were no buildings around that were even nearly as tall, he did not think anyone would see Ceres' face. He could not imagine that the Willis Tower, at 110-stories, would be just a few blocks away and surrounded by dozens of 50-70 stories structures.

The photo inset is of Ceres lit up at night* 

@ChiCitiGirl Tips: If you're visiting during the day, be sure to come back at night to see the building illuminated. Get a great pic down LaSalle Canyon by standing (safely) in the median at the crosswalk, when allowed. You can get photos that include the west side of City Hall (121 N. LaSalle) where the flags are hung, including the stars and striped Chicago city flag, designated in 1917.

*Photo by Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped from original.

Ceres Sculpture at top of Chicago Mercantile Exchange

If you have the chance, visit this area after sunset for a great photo op.

Be sure to tag me @ChiCitiGirl with your photos!

Ceres Sculpture/CME Building at night

The original title for what is known as Miro's Chicago was "The Sun, the Moon and One Star". Created by one of Spain's most famous artists from the Catalan region, Joan Miro (1893-1983), it's one of his most famous pieces.

Standing at nearly 40 feet (12 meters) tall, this is a mixed-media sculpture made of steel, wire mesh, concrete, bronze, and ceramic tile. Miro handmade the bright ceramic elements at the bottom in Majorca and created the bronze elements in Barcelona. 

Unveiled to Chicago on April 21st, 1981, the artist's birthday, it was a project that droned on nearly 2 decades, delayed by lack of funding and bureaucracy. It was criticized by many locals, as Chicagoans tend to do as they did for the Picasso across the street. Incidentally, Miro met Picasso in 1920 when he traveled to Paris so it seems an artist's camaraderie of sorts since their structures both flank Washington Street over 60 decades later. Over the years, it has become more popular and is nicknamed "Miss Chicago," perhaps for the curves in the structure.

The plaza that houses Miro's Chicago is between the 1st United Methodist Church/Chicago Temple to the west and the George W. Dunn Cook County Office Building to the east. The church skyscraper was erected in 1925 and was the city's tallest building at the time.

Miro's Chicago

This striking, 53 foot (16 meters), 50 ton steel arched sculpture is by American artist, Alexander Calder. Unveiled in October of 1974, the piece is the flagship of Federal Plaza, surrounded by the Federal Center buildings where it stands in against the dark steel of the Kluczynski Federal Building, designed by famed German-born architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. 

The US General Services Administration commissioned the piece as part of their 'Percent for Art’ program which allocates a percentage of their budget to public art. 

Calder's Flamingo is a steadfast example of Constructivism which is sculpture made from smaller pieces which are joined together. The Constructivist Movement was first popularized in Russia in the early part of the 20th century.

The color, known as 'Calder-red' is the perfect juxtaposition in this location and is fantastically beautiful when lit up at night.

Calder's Flamingo

"Thank you for taking my Sculpture Art Tour of the Loop. Watch this to learn about my other in-person walking, food, kayak and virtual tours. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook @ChiCitiGirl.

Enjoy your Chicago adventures and remember to always look up!"
-@ChiCitiGirl

Meet your Tour Guide, @ChiCitiGirl and her dog

Tour Sculpture and Art in Chicago's Central Business and Theatre District

Sculpture Art Tour in the Loop

La década de 1960 marcó el inicio de un renacimiento artístico en Chicago, con encargos de artistas de todo el mundo que se exhibieron por toda la ciudad. Con fotos, texto, audio y video, explorarás algunas de las esculturas más destacadas de la ciudad, así como otras más difíciles de encontrar, para conocer su historia y a sus creadores.

Se incluyen consejos de @ChiCitiGirl para la visita y las fotos.

@ChiCitiGirl es una guía turística profesional certificada que ofrece recorridos a pie, gastronómicos, en kayak y virtuales por Chicago. Sigue a @ChiCitiGirl en Instagram y a @To Do In Chicago with Chicitigirl Treks & Bites en Facebook para obtener información sobre recorridos presenciales y virtuales.

Recorra las esculturas y el arte en el distrito central de negocios y teatros de Chicago.

@ChiCitiGirl

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