Courtesy WTTW Channel 11

Monday November 29th marks the premier of Biking the Boulevards, a documentary by Chicago’s WTTW Channel 11.  Geoffrey Baer—local PBS celebrity and architecture buff– hosts the documentary and delves deep into the history of Chicago’s boulevard system and the South side.

Chicago’s boulevard system was the first of it’s kind in 1860’s America.  The city itself was a harsh environment of industry, manufacturing, and, of course, the ever-present stockyards. The boulevard system was a solution to these problems and was designed as a network of green spaces to help city dwellers escape from the industrial dust and din of 19^th century Chicago. Greats such as Frederick Law Olmstead (designer of New York’s central park), William le Baron Jenny (the father of the skyscraper), and Jensen worked separately to create beautiful respites from city living; employing the newly-conceived prairies style architecture. The results are some of the most beautiful and well-loved parks in the United States. Linking north and south side; east and west into a twenty-eight mile emerald-green loop.

The past grandeur of the boulevards is now concealed in peeling paint and streets littered with Vitner’s potato chip bags.  By peddling along at ten miles per hour, Biking the Bouelevards is able to look beyond disrepair and reveal the boulevards’ and the south side’s most surprisingly beautiful secrets including the existence of a Frank Lloyd Wright beer garden at 60^th and Cottage Grove, a horse racing track in Washington Park, and the origins of social service programs in Sherman Park.

My summer was devoted to scrounging for photos for this documentary. LOTS of photos. Obscure requests on our script called for a “photo of Carter Harrison II on a bike built for ten.” Also, “Drexel Boulevard as Bleak” and “Decaying of the Fountain of Time ” were on my list, and fortunately through the course of the summer, checked off.  Many a sweltering summer day was spent on the back of a camera truck.  Our cameraman, Tom, would lean precariously far over the truck bed to get the perfect shot, I held onto a thick script, and Geoffrey peddled along on his shiny black Pashley cruiser with a perpetual smile on his face.  We must have been a sight to behold. “What movie are you filming for?” was the continual question. “Transformers Three,” we would yell back.

A pair of roofers on Martin Luther King Drive looked up from their work.  “Geoffrey Baer, right?  I’m a fan of your shows!” one shouts as we cruise by.  We were pleasantly surprised to see the show had a south side following.

So tune in the Monday after Thanksgiving to WTTW Channel 11 and check out Biking the Boulevards—Trust me, you’ll learn a lot on the ride.

Check out a sneak-peak preview here