Virtual Bird's Eye » Illinois

Chicago Building Demolition Bird’s Eye View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:32:30 +0000

A building on the South Side of Chicago is getting demolished as the BirdΓÇÖs Eye View plane was flying overhead.┬á From looking at other map sources, Google Map Link (use street view), it appears that maybe some of the structure was remodeled to use in the current building.

Anyone know the building and when this building was being torn down/rebuilt?

Click either image for the BirdΓÇÖs Eye View in full screen using Virtual Earth

Largest Pumpkin Patch in the US Aerial View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:25:38 +0000

This is the area (there is over 15,000 acres) where the company that sells the most pumpkins in the nation is located. Frey Farms produce supplies more than 1 million pumpkins a year to places like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kroger Co., Meijer Inc. and other retailers.

Welcome to Frey Farms Produce Online

Click on the image below to see the location using Microsoft Virtual Earth

Northwestern Wildcats – Aerial View of Ryan Field

Virtual Bird's Eye — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:55:19 +0000

The day after the last home football game in 1996, a $30 million renovation of NU’s stadium began. Opened in the fall of 1997, the new stadium was christened Ryan Field, in honor of the Patrick G. Ryan family. Mr. Ryan is the chair of Northwestern’s Board of Trustees and has been a member of the board since 1978.

The 1959 graduate of Northwestern is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Aon Corporation in Chicago. His wife, Shirley, a 1961 Northwestern graduate, is chairman and co-founder of Pathways Awareness Foundation and is chairman of the Chicago Community Trust. She has been a member of Northwestern’s Women’s Board since 1978. Cont – Northwestern Ryan Field

Northwestern Football Official Athletic Site

Northwestern University, Evanston/Chicago, IL, Northwestern University

NCAA.com Football Home Page

Click either image for an Aerial and BirdΓÇÖs Eye view of Ryan Field using Virtual Earth.┬á Make sure to check out all the other NCAA Division 1 college football stadiums.

Technorati Tags: Sports,Big Ten,College Football,NCAA,Northwestern Golden Gophers

Illinois Fighting Illini – Aerial and Bird’s Eye View of Memorial Stadium

Virtual Bird's Eye — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:06:21 +0000

Memorial Stadium, designed by the Chicago architecture firm of Holabird and Roche, now known as Holabird and Root, the same architecture firm that designed the ΓÇ£Original Soldier FieldΓÇ¥ in Chicago, as well as numerous other University of Illinois campus buildings, was built in 1923 as a memorial to Illinois men and women who gave their lives for their country during World War I. Their names appear on 200 columns that support the east and west sides of the stadium. In May of 2002, the University Alumni Association began a campaign to fund a veterans’ memorial project which would recognize the 1,087 who have lost their lives in battle in World War II, the Second Nicaraguan Campaign, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Lebanon and Desert Storm. Cont – Fighting Illini Facilities // University of Illinois

Fighting Illini Football Home Page

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

NCAA.com Football Home Page

Click either image for an Aerial and BirdΓÇÖs Eye view of Memorial Stadium using Virtual Earth.┬á Make sure to check out all the other NCAA Division 1 college football stadiums.

Technorati Tags: Sports,Big Ten,College Football,NCAA,Fighting Illini

Chicago Bears – Soldier Field Aerial and Bird’s Eye View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:37:15 +0000

During the 1920s, the South Park Commission constructed Soldier Field, the first great metropolitan-sponsored athletic structure, at the approximate site where the Burnham Plan of 1909 had proposed a facility for sport and other great events. Originally known as Grant Park Stadium, it was soon renamed Soldier Field in honor of deceased World War I servicemen. Architects Holabird & Roche won a competition to design a 100,000-seat U-shaped amphitheater which they modeled after the Parthenon, conforming to the adjacent Field Museum’s neoclassical style. In 1920 voters approved a $2.5 million bond issue, but construction costs exceeded expectations, requiring additional $3 million bond issues in 1924 and in 1928, for a total cost of $8.5 million. Overruns were attributed to the difficulties of construction on reclaimed land, the elegant classical accouterments, and kickbacks to Park Board president Edward J. Kelly. Soldier Field – Encyclopedia of Chicago

Tickets and Stadium Home – Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears Team Page

NFL.com – Official Site of the National Football League

Use the interactive map below to pan and zoom around the Aerial View or BirdΓÇÖs Eye View of the stadium.┬á Make sure and check out the rest of the NFL Stadium views to find another teamΓÇÖs home field!

Link to Live Maps

Technorati Tags: NFL,Chicago Bears,Virtual Earth,Stadium,NFC North

Ernest Hemingway House Chicago Aerial and Bird’s Eye View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:22:01 +0000

Today marks the birthday of Ernest Miller Hemingway in 1899. Below you will find the link to his restored childhood home located in Oak Park Illinois.

The first son of Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a doctor, and Grace Hall Hemingway, Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in a suburb of Chicago. He was educated in the public schools and began to write in high school, where he was active and outstanding, but the parts of his boyhood that mattered most were summers spent with his family on Walloon Lake in upper Michigan. On graduation from high school in 1917, impatient for a less-sheltered environment, he did not enter college but went to Kansas City, where he was employed as a reporter for the Star. He was repeatedly rejected for military service because of a defective eye, but he managed to enter World War I as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. On July 8, 1918, not yet 19 years old, he was injured on the Austro-Italian front at Fossalta di Piave. Decorated for heroism and hospitalized in Milan, he fell in love with a Red Cross nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, who declined to marry him. These were experiences he was never to forget. cont – Ernest Hemingway Britannica Online

The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park

Ernest Hemingway – His Life and Works

Photo Credit From Above – From Wikipedia

Use the interactive map below to pan an zoom around the Aerial and Bird’s Eye view of the Historic Ernest Hemingway house location.

Link to Live Maps

Technorati Tags: Ernest Hemingway,Historic Home,Virtual Earth,Birthday

Navy Pier Chicago Aerial and Bird’s Eye View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:07:10 +0000

Navy Pier is a 3,300-foot (1,010 m) long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million; it was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and city planner Daniel Burnham and his associates. As Municipal Pier #2 (Municipal Pier #1 was never built), Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for lake freighters, and warehouses were built up and down the pier. However, the pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre-air conditioning era parts of the pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. The pier even had its own streetcar. It was known as a romantic spot for young lovers. – Wikipedia

Official Site

Use the interactive map below to pan and zoom around the park or visit the Virtual Earth site for the Aerial or BirdΓÇÖs Eye view.

┬áLink to Live Maps

Technorati Tags: Virtual Earth,Navy Pier,Chicago

Six Flags Great America Chicago Aerial and Birds Eye View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:22:50 +0000

Six Flags Great America is the Chicago metropolitan area’s Six Flags theme park located in Gurnee, Illinois. It first opened in 1976 as Marriott’s Great America. Six Flags purchased the park from the Marriott Corporation in 1984 making it the seventh park in the chain. Today, the park boasts eight themed sections, a 13-acre water park, three specially themed children’s areas, and various other forms of entertainment. – Wikipedia

Six Flags Great America Official Site

Six Flags Official Site

Use the interactive map below to pan and zoom around the park or visit the Virtual Earth site for the Aerial or Bird’s Eye view of the theme park.

Link to Live Maps

Technorati Tags: Six Flags,Theme Park,Virtual Earth,Great America,Tourist Attractions

Chicago Cubs – Wrigley Field Aerial View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:59:31 +0000

Wrigley Field is the second-oldest ballpark in the majors behind Boston’s Fenway Park (1912).

Originally known as Weeghman Park, Wrigley Field was built on the grounds once occupied by a seminary.

The Wrigley Field bleachers and scoreboard were constructed in 1937 when the outfield area was renovated to provide improved and expanded seating … the original scoreboard remains intact.

The original vines were purchased and planted by Bill Veeck in September 1937 … Veeck strung bittersweet from the top of the wall to the bottom, then planted the ivy at the base of the wall.

Wrigley Field added lights in 1988.

Chicago Cubs Official Site (Source of Facts Above)

Major League Baseball Official Site

Click on the pictures for a Bird’s Eye View or an Aerial View using Virtual Earth

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Chicago White Sox: U.S. Cellular Field Aerial View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:31:25 +0000

The new Comiskey Park opened on April 18, 1991, three years after the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation to build the park directly across the street from old Comiskey Park. A ground-breaking ceremony was held on May 7, 1989, with Mayor Richard M. Daley and Governor James Thompson in attendance. The new park featured an exploding scoreboard, an old-time facade complete with arches and over 40,000 unobstructed-view seats. The ballpark attracted a club-record 2,934,154 fans in its first year. In January, 2003, it was renamed U.S. Cellular Field. – Official Site

Official Site Of the Chicago White Sox

Check The Seating Map

Click on the pictures for a Bird’s Eye View or an Aerial View using Virtual Earth

Looking for more?┬á Check out the rest of our Stadium Aerial Views or narrow it down to only the Baseball Stadium Aerial Views

Technorati Tags: MLB,Baseball,Stadium,Virtual Earth,Chicago,White Sox

PGA Tour: TPC Deere Run Golf Course Aerial View

Virtual Bird's Eye — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:09:43 +0000

Perhaps the most enticing stretch of holes begins at the par-4 15th through to the finish. Weibring and Gray achieved a stadium feel and look that is common to many TPC designs, but they did it without moving much earth. The holes, including two long par-4s, cut through the trees and a ravine, making for a natural stadium golf setting. – Official Site

PGA Tour Official Site for this Event

TPC Deer Run Official Site

John Deer Classic Official Site

Click on each image for a link to Virtual Earth images – Aerial Views and BirdΓÇÖs Eye View photos are available for the course.

Technorati Tags: PGA Tour,Golf,John Deer Classic,Virtual Earth

Chicagoland Speedway Aerial Photo

Virtual Bird's Eye — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:37:08 +0000

Big track in the heart of the midwest – and right next to one of the largest cities in the country.

This magnificent speedway is the result of over five years of painstaking effort by Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George, International Speedway Corporation Chief Executive Officer Bill France and nine local Joliet entrepreneurs: George Barr, Jim Bingham, Dale Coyne, Jerry Papesh, Ed Rensi, Steve Spiess, Dale Steffes, Jack Steffes and Rex Steffes.
The plan to build a superspeedway in the third-largest market in the nation had been rumored for years. Auto-racing executives and major-league sanctioning bodies had long maintained that the untapped market of Chicago was perhaps the most lucrative in the country.

Check out the Official Site – or click on one of the 2 images to view the map

Technorati Tags: NASCAR,Chicagoland,Race tracks,Indy Pro,ARCA

In Flight: Chicago Midway Airport

Virtual Bird's Eye — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:44:48 +0000

Caught taking off in an aerial photo from Midway Airport in Chicago.

See other In Flight Photos here on Virtual Bird’s Eye

Technorati Tags: Bird’s Eye,Midway Airport,Aerial Photo