I love visiting rooftops and looking out on how Chicagoans have decked out their rooftops and outdoor terraces. The spaces run the gamut from the starkly utilitarian to the brashly baroque.
Last Saturday I was on the roof at 100 E Bellevue Pl in the Gold Coast and shot pictures of some neighboring roof decks and terraces. I took a quick pass through the 100s of 1,000s of photos in our archives and added a few more to the newly-created Flickr slideshow you see embedded above. You can visit our Gold Coast terraces and roof decks album at Flickr, drill down on an image and right-click it to see larger versions. I’ll add to the album when I encounter additional images in the archives.
Private outdoor space is precious in dense areas of the city and you might expect to see far more roof decks than you actually do. Economics and the Chicago Building Code account for their relative scarcity.