Chicago in Color · Chicago

31st Street, Autumn

31st Street Beach · Chicago Lakefront

Photographed from 31st Street Beach on a late autumn afternoon, this panoramic view of the Chicago skyline stretches the full width of the city in a single, unhurried frame. Willis Tower anchors the left; Trump, Hancock, the Prudential, and St. Regis rise in sequence; McCormick Place sits in the middle ground like a quiet stage, with a hint of Soldier Field tucked into the far corner. Fall foliage lines the shore in amber and red, and Lake Michigan fills the foreground with soft, moving color.

This is the Chicago skyline most people have never seen — a south-side angle that gives the city room to breathe and reveals layers of architecture that the more familiar Adler Planetarium view can't show.