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Sure, Belgium and Florida would be nice. But—we hear you asking—what can we drive to? We've got you covered, with tips for four fall trips within 400 miles
KC’s New Nelson-Atkins
By Stephen Schenkenberg
Though it should be enough that Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (nelson-atkins.org) has one of the finest comprehensive collections in the country, there’s now another reason to go: Its new addition, known as the Bloch Building, is a stunner. And considering our Saint Louis Art Museum will break ground next year on its own major expansion, it’s a stunner we’d do well to keep in mind. The overly competitive (or nostalgic) might want to turn this into an I-70 Museum Showdown, but we prefer to see it as a win-win for the region.
The reviews for the $200 million Nelson-Atkins project have been wonderful. The New York Times called it “breathtaking”; The New Yorker deemed the transformed building “one of the best museums of the last generation”; Time, with a light pat to our Midwestern heads, offered the following: “This may not sound like an idea that would go over in Kansas City, but the local opposition, what there was of it, folded long ago. Beauty is an argument that doesn’t take no for an answer.”
What was the idea? American architect Steven Holl conceived of a series of five translucent glass boxes—he calls them “lenses”—which he’s planted down one side of the museum’s campus; the lenses are linked underground by galleries, and they’ve been applauded not just for how well they integrate with the surrounding landscape, but also for how beautifully they house works of art inside (something the recently expanded Denver Art Museum has been criticized for forgetting).
Because the Bloch Building’s lenses look different depending on the natural light, we recommend a two-day visit—a late-afternoon arrival, say, followed by a second look early the next morning. Just don’t go falling in love with it. Art Hill will start to miss you.
A Fall Weekend in Cinci
By Lisa Schultz
1. Check into the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel; don’t leave the historic landmark right away, since the Bar at Palm Court has live jazz and French Art Deco design that landed the hotel on the national historic register.
2. Saturday a.m.: Orient yourself using Fountain Square, famous for the Tyler Davidson Fountain and infamous for KKK Christmastime displays in the 1990s. A bit of shopping in the Carew Tower is immediately west; the Contemporary Art Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, is just north; Sawyer Point is east; and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is south toward the Ohio River.
3. Lunch at one of three downtown locations of Skyline Chili. Request a three-way, and the waitress won’t be offended; she’ll bring a dish of spaghetti topped with chili (chocolate is the rumored secret ingredient) and cheese.
4. If you don’t make reservations for dinner at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, you can just hang out at the upstairs sports bar until your table is ready. Start with Saratoga chips and onion straws before ordering barbecued ribs from Ted the Ribs King. From the dessert menu, order Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chip Ice Cream. It started in Cincinnati, and the chocolate chips require four bites.
5. Head back toward central downtown to shake off that hard-knock life for a showing of Annie (October 23–28) at the Aranoff Center. If your mood isn’t musical, hike toward the lights of Mt. Adams to see one of Shakespeare’s darkest plays, Othello, at Playhouse in the Park.
6. It’s Sunday. Learn a bit of local history at Porkopolis in Mt. Adams. Now named after the city’s slaughterhouse days, the building was originally the home of Rookwood Pottery, which explains why people reserve tables inside giant kilns.
7. See masterpieces created in those kilns down the street at the Cincinnati Art Museum as part of “Vanishing Frontier: Rookwood, Farny and the American Indian.” Another fall exhibit features the 1940–1960 realist works of Charley and Edie Harper, who met as students at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, which is adjacent to the museum.
8. On your way out of town, lap Eden Park for a drive-by of Krohn Conservatory and Mirror Lake, which you’ll spot by its 60-foot fountain. Grab some change, toss it in and drive on home.
Evolution and Maps in Chicago
By Bryan A. Hollerbach
It feels apt that Chicago’s Field Museum will run exhibits on Charles Darwin and cartography concurrently later this fall: Darwin—perhaps more than any other scientist of the modern era, even Albert Einstein—mapped a stretch of terra incognita that continues to boggle the mind.
“Multiform difficulties will occur to every one, with respect to this theory,” Darwin confessed in a manuscript presented to the Linnaean Society of London in 1858. A year later, he defined “this theory” with the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. In anticipation of the bicentennial of his birth on February 12, 1809, the Field’s “Darwin” presents a panorama of the English naturalist’s life and work, including, of course, his five-year tour aboard the HMS Beagle, which took him to the Galápagos Islands and inspired Origin. The exhibit, which will run till New Year’s Day 2008, also boasts Darwin’s notebooks, a reconstruction of his suburban London study and live animals—among them an iguana, one of the creatures he saw (and supped on) during the Beagle voyage.
Joining “Darwin” at the Field will be “Maps: Finding Our Place in the World” (November 2–January 27). Our earliest surviving maps date from Babylonian times, more than four millennia ago, and the Field exhibit will trace the development of cartography from clay tiles to digital downloads, from ancient surveys to the ABC’s of GPS. Our suspicion? It may well earn not just an A but a heartfelt AAA from any wife who’s ever implored her husband, “Can’t we please ask for directions?”
The Field Museum lies almost exactly 300 miles from St. Louis, due north of Soldier Field on Lake Shore Drive. For ticket information on “Darwin” and “Maps,” call 312-922-9410 or visit fieldmuseum.org.
Indianapolis With the Kids
By Thomas Crone
Drive four hours in any direction of St. Louis and you’re not likely to find a more visually pleasing journey than the trip to Indianapolis. Rolling farmlands, a distinct lack of roadside signage, charming small towns—all are your companions as you approach a city that’s one of the underrated gems of the region.
But after all that relaxing, pastoral scenery, families may want a bit of time with some more intense, vibrant visual stimulation.
St. Louisans, well familiar with their hometown’s famed City Museum and Saint Louis Science Center, will find a kindred soul in The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, which fuses the two local landmarks, featuring exhibits that stimulate learning through bold exhibits and play areas, as well as a design that gives kids a desire to explore this expansive space on its own terms. Built in 1976 and added onto several times since, the CMI features everything from the nation’s largest set of Dale Chihuly glass to a 9-foot-tall polar bear to interactive exhibits that engage everyone from tiny tots to teens.
While there’s a definite educational component to much of the museum, some of the collections—like a stash of 5,000 Star Wars toys—are there for pure enjoyment. Korean quilts, dinosaur eggs and a skeleton of a 110-million-year-old “SuperCroc” can all be found here.
For those thinking of heading to the CMI, it should be noted that the museum’s website (childrensmuseum.org) has a significant amount of the info on those collections and nearby lodgings, but also allows kids from preschool age on to enjoy a variety of games and even preview teasers of the exhibits. The museum itself is located in the heart of central Indy, just minutes from downtown Indianapolis and exactly 250 miles from downtown St. Louis, making it a four-hours-and-change drive from the Gateway City. And as we noted, these aren’t a bad four hours in the car. Enjoy the view.
