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Cityfront Plaza

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Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (2023) 304
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (2023) 304

Cityfront Plaza is a plaza in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is along an elevated roadway linking North Michigan and Columbus, near NBC Tower and Pioneer Court. According to the Chicago Tribune, Cityfront Plaza "was intended to be the entryway to several buildings around it. Instead it is adjacent to several ground-level parking lots." The newspaper has also said the plaza "continues to feel like a nice little park that sits incongruously atop a road".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cityfront Plaza (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Cityfront Plaza
Cityfront Plaza, Chicago

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Wikipedia: Cityfront PlazaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 41.890277777778 ° E -87.621805555556 °
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Cityfront Plaza

Cityfront Plaza
Chicago
Illinois, United States
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Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (2023) 304
Chicago, Illinois, U.S. (2023) 304
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Nearby Places

NBC Tower
NBC Tower

The NBC Tower is an office tower on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois located at 454 North Columbus Drive (455 North Cityfront Plaza is also used as a vanity address for the building) in downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile area. Completed in 1989, the 37-story building reaches a height of 627 feet (191 m). NBC's Chicago offices, studios, and owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV are located here as of 1989 and on October 1, 1989, WMAQ-TV broadcast its first newscast at 10:00 that evening at its new home, NBC Tower, with the then-weeknight news team of Ron Magers, Carol Marin, John Coleman, and Mark Giangreco. Later, Telemundo O&O WSNS-TV has also occupied the building since its purchase by NBC in 2001. Formerly its former radio sister WMAQ/WSCR was located here. The studios of NBC's former Chicago FM property, WKQX, and its sister station WLUP are located in the NBC Tower.The design, by Adrian D. Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is considered one of the finest reproductions of the Art Deco style. It was inspired by 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, which is NBC's global headquarters. The tower is further enhanced by the use of limestone piers and recessed tinted glass with granite spandrels. The building takes additional cues from the nearby landmark Tribune Tower with the use of flying buttresses. A 130 ft (40 m) broadcast tower and spire tops the skyscraper. WMAQ and WSNS have STL and satellite facilities on the roof; the STLs link to WMAQ and WSNS's transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower. WMAQ radio/WSCR studios and STL were located in the building until 2006 when they relocated to Two Prudential Plaza. Located in the Cityfront Plaza area, the building contains 850,000 sq ft (79,000 m2) of space and three floors of underground parking with 261 spaces. Connected to the main tower is a four-story radio and television broadcasting facility where popular shows such as Judge Mathis and WSNS's newscasts and WMAQ's newscasts are currently taped, and was the former recording facility for Jerry Springer and The Steve Wilkos Show before their tax credit-influenced move to Stamford, Connecticut in 2009. It was also home to the 1990s syndicated improv/sketch show Kwik Witz, The Jenny Jones Show until its cancellation in 2003, and Steve Harvey its move to Los Angeles in 2017.

Pioneer Court
Pioneer Court

Pioneer Court is a plaza located near the junction of the Chicago River and Upper Michigan Avenue in Chicago's Magnificent Mile. It is believed to be the site of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable's original residence and trading post. In 1965, the plaza was built on the former site of his homestead as part of the construction of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America building. The Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite was designated as a National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976. John Kinzie, a prominent early settler, bought and expanded Point du Sable's post in 1800. The Plaza is bounded on the north by the Tribune Tower, on the east by 401 N. Michigan Avenue, on the south by the Chicago River, and on the west by Michigan Avenue, adjacent to the DuSable Bridge. In 2017, a newly designed Apple Inc. store was opened on the south side of the court, which created new levels linking down to the river. From 2011–2012 the plaza was the display site for the Seward Johnson statue Forever Marilyn. The statue was later moved to Palm Springs, California. The plaza was used as a location in the film Divergent in 2013. A new temporary statue was installed on November 1, 2016 in Pioneer Court. Also created by Seward Johnson, the statue, titled Return Visit, is 25 feet tall and depicts Abraham Lincoln standing next to a modern common man dressed in beige corduroy pants, sneakers and a cream color cable-knit sweater. The modern man is holding a copy of the Gettysburg Address.