Lake Michigan Archives

Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge & Plaza Restoration

Chicago skyway toll bridge

AP Almanac MILLER+MILLER Architectural Photography Project of the Week

For behind the scenes + shoot details, visit the APALMANAC M+M feature: Highway To The Danger Zone: Husband / Wife Team Ryan + Sarah Miller Pull Off Incredible Photos of the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge

transportation steel bridges photography

Chicago Skyway Toll

transportation construction restoration

Restored Chicago skyway traffic night

Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge Plaza restoration

Chicago roadway infrastructure photography

Toll booth Chicago Skyway

Chicago civil engineer transportation photos

Chicago skyway artistic road bridge infrastructure pictures

chicago infrastructure photographer

LED red neon sign stainless steel

roadway sign transportation

skyway art-deco transportation toll canopy restoration

Chicago bridge photographer

aerial pictures expressway toll lanes traffic

Chicago Skyway Bridge

Industrial Chicago bridge photographer

Chicago skyway bridge night

steel bridge night transportation

Nationwide architectural photographers, we shoot a variety of structures and construction. For this project, Miller+Miller had the opportunity to capture photography of the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, canopy, and plaza restoration photographing the toll road’s infrastructure construction completion in photographs. Not long after the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge & Plaza restoration’s construction completion, we scheduled photography of the famous iconic, neon sign gateway and high-bridge entrance into the city of Chicago.

The marketing department from the Skyway inquired to Miller + Miller, looking to hire an architectural photographer to capture structural photography with photos showcasing the site’s update which preserved the original vintage art-deco design of the toll plaza structure and infrastructure photography highlighting the modern day new technological improvements. The architectural photography project incorporated a variety of shots including aerial drone photos, day, dusk images, and night photographs of the historic restoration of the Chicago Skyway plaza, LED toll lane signage, modern signs along the roadway, stainless steel tollbooth, steel canopy, neon letter signage, portraits of employees working in toll lanes, and scenic pictures of the high-bridge from the roadway for the organization’s press releases, marketing, website, and advertising photo needs.

The project included photographing one of the Chicago area’s major transportation route and travel hubs. The Skyway serves a link between roadways, tollways and expressways within Illinois, Indiana and Michigan midwestern states while traveling to downtown Chicago from the Southside. The Chicago Skyway is a 7.8 mile long toll road built by the city of Chicago in 1958 to connect the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Toll Road. In 2005, Chicago’s Skyway became the first U.S. privatization of a toll road in the country. The Chicago Skyway Tollway is currently operated & maintained by the Skyway Concession Company, LLC and was purchased in 2016 by three Canadian Pension Funds – OMERS Infrastructure, CPP Investment Board, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

Since 2005, the Skyway Concession Company, LLC has invested over 120 million dollars on transportation industry improvements to the Skyway, including an expansive technology build-out to allow for electronic payment of tolls and ability of E-ZPass / I-PASS payment. The ability to combine the sixty-year-old architecture of the canopy with the latest tolling technology is “a testament to the progressive and versatile nature of the original toll plaza design,” said Skyway Concession Company CEO in a statement to Curbed Chicago. The Chicago Skyway canopy restoration project, led by SOM, carefully returns the structure to its original form while modernizing its tolling technology. Old cameras, antennae, and other attachments are replaced by new, streamlined technology for more convenient and efficient toll services, plus LED lighting, and easy-to-read digital signage. According to SOM, the canopy design incorporates photovoltaic panels to provide 100 percent of the renewable clean energy required to run the toll plaza. As communications and transportation technology evolved, the toll plaza had been continuously retrofitted with new devices and fittings. This recent modernization no longer was impeding service speed and traffic flow.

The original 1958 construction design of the Skyway’s toll plaza canopy was described as “ultra-modern”. Architectural photographs of the renovation not only included highlighting infrastructure, but also architectural structural renovation design which kept the familiar toll plaza eye-catching mid-century design elements from the historic, original construction design. Car drivers along the roadway today are still invited with the 1958-styled, historic, classic red sign mounted neon letters which spell out “Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge” atop the historically modernized piece of elegant midcentury infrastructure.

In addition, the architectural photography shoot project included capturing day images and night photos of the 1⁄2-mile-long steel truss bridge, known as the “High Bridge” crosses the Calumet River and Calumet Harbor. A major harbor for large-sized industrial ships, the Skyway bridge’s construction is an impressive 650 feet long and provides for 125 feet of vertical clearance. The photography shoot focused on angles of not only the Skyway’s soaring very HIGH overhead steel bridge & roadway, but also artistic road, expressway and infrastructure pictures with shots of the bridge incorporating the area views of the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Chicago skyline in the distance, and creative aerial drone photographs of the roadway transportation system.

Learn more about The Chicago Skyway at www.chicagoskyway.org. The Skyway project’s architectural renovation design was led by Architect SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL LLP. Project engineer and civil engineering of the famed Chicago Skyway Bridge’s design and construction by contractors Beier Engineering. Miller + Miller Architectural Photography was thankful to photograph the renovation project providing marketing construction images of the updated Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge & Plaza Restoration project.

Searching for a photographer to capture images for your organization’s marketing needs? Contact Miller + Miller with your project description. Miller + Miller are Chicago-based, Nationwide traveling interior, architectural photographers, & UAS drone pilot licensed with commercial construction photography services abilities. Visit our Portfolio to view additional images or the quick links below:

View Our Drone Photography Images Portfolio Section

See More Commercial Construction & Architect Marketing Photos

Lake Michigan Beach Homes Real Estate Photographers

Lake Michigan Beach Real Estate House Home photographer

Southwest beach house Lake Michigan photographers

Harbor Country waterfront property photography Lake Michigan

Real Estate Photographer Southwest Michigan

Michigan beach house photographer photos

Lake Michigan beach homes real estate photographers

Luxury Lake Michigan beach homes waterfront

beach home office

Beach house interior photography

luxury bath coastal interior beach house

Interior photographer Michigan Harbor Country

Lake House Michigan homes interiors photographer

custom home beach houses

Michigan photographers beach houses

Lake Waterfront Ocean Pool Mansion Michigan

Southwest Michigan lake house real estate photographers

Luxury custom beach home New Buffalo Lakeside Union Pier

beach waterfront vacation resort development photographer

Chicago Michigan drone photographer waterfront beach homes development

Grill pool landscaping beach house north lake shore

Interior decorator photos Lake Michigan beach house

Luxury living Lake Michigan Chicago Highland Forest

Drone photographer Southwest Michigan beach house

modern beach home architecture

million dollar luxury beach lakefront Michigan

luxury real estate Michigan beach lake front homes

Chicago Lake Michigan waterfront homes drone photographer

Chicago drone Michigan Lake House residential real estate photographers

night twilight mansion beach house photography

Lake Charlevoix Traverse City Michigan waterfront home real estate

Torch Lake real estate photographer

Traverse City lake home photographer

Torch Lake home photographer Michigan

beachfront properties lake Michigan real estate

Lake Michigan real estate home photographers

Home Builders Southwest Michigan luxury properties

Waterfront property outdoor terrace night

Miller + Miller Photography are residential properties photography specialists who work as Lake Michigan beach home real estate photographers offering drone, aerial photography, video and beach home photography services. Photographing scenic landscapes and beach properties, expansive waterfront homes, and luxury properties around Lake Michigan’s shoreline from the Illinois’s north shores, to Indiana and Southwestern Michigan’s Harbor Country up north to Charlevoix and Traverse City. Also photographing lakefront homes on the finest intercoastal lakes in Michigan Torch Lake, Glen Lake, Lake Charlevoix, and others throughout the state of Michigan, Wisconsin, the Midwest and ocean frontage too.

Our husband and wife team of architectural photographers travel often from our Chicago based company to waterfront communities, recreational and vacation hot spots and where lakefront homes and building flourish. Midwest’s hot spots for waterfront real estate are along the Lake Michigan lakeshore in Chicago’s North Shores of Chicago Illinois, to close to Chicago in Harbor Country in Southwest Michigan, to private waterfront properties on intercoastal lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin. Our beach homes and real estate photographers company produces high-quality marketing photos for all types of real estate, custom build homes, modern beach houses for sale, coastal beach developments and developers, residential, commercial, harbor landscape, vacation town tourism, and award-winning residential architects properties & homes throughout the Midwest.

Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan’s Harbor Country and Berrien County is a popular destination for vacationing, lodging, hotels, events, vacation beach rentals, and purchasing a waterfront 2nd homes for Chicago residents. Just north of the Indiana state line, out of state nearby dwellers easily travel to Southwest Michigan from Illinois, Detroit Michigan, Indiana and nearby to purchase a vacation home. Booking a photographer to provide impressive photography showcasing a beach home to entice out-of-state buyers is a powerful marketing tool. A beach and waterfront sandy destination location is one of our personal home-away-from home settings! Due to our own personal numerous annual vacations over the past two decades traveling to the Harbor Country area and Northern Michigan state vacation lake homes for photography and personal visits with grilling, swimming in the sand, enjoying the scenic sandy landscape, sunshine, relaxing, and boating always included. Harbor Country is a short drive and getaway destination for your beach waterfront on Lake Michigan residential real estate home photography needs. Traveling to Michigan’s Michiana, Grand Beach, New Buffalo, Union Pier, Lakeside, Harbert, Saugatuck, South Haven, St. Joseph, beaches and sandy cliff havens scenic vistas lakeshore filled with waterfront homes.

Since 2006, our architectural photography company, husband-wife team provides architectural photography, exteriors, and interior photography for clients in the Midwest. Luxury and Beach Homes Real Estate Photographers who’s list of photography clientele covers the building industry, new construction and renovation, design architecture, beach property developers and development, interior design, hospitality, hotels, restaurants, architecture, condominiums, boat houses, beach cottages, drone aerial photography of waterfront lake homes, and more producing award-winning marketing, advertising and real estate listing home photography. Our premium quality, Lake Michigan and surrounding area architectural photography services are unlimited, and we quote photography projects specifically catered to your company’s imagery needs.

From exterior home marketing pictures to award-winning interior designed rooms and landscapes, we have worked with a number of the Midwest’s and Michigan’s top custom home builders, lake front builder’s properties, and waterfront development design firms creating quality imagery. Producing premium pictures and architecturally vivid imagery, our hands-on real estate photography services in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and the Midwest include aerial drone photography, residential real estate home photography, night exterior home photography at twilight or sunset, custom built homes photography, luxury leasing and property management marketing departments, developers marketing for a new developments, new construction, renovations, luxury beach houses, unique properties, picturesque waterfront homes photos, resorts, hotels, trendy new restaurants, and more. Traveling throughout the state of Michigan, Chicago, and beyond.

Photographers Miller + Miller Architectural Photography are lake waterfront luxury homes photographer company specializes in producing award-winning property, real estate, marketing, advertising, artistic, creative, unique and quality drone aerial drone images for companies in Detroit, Grand Haven, Holland, Douglas, South Haven, Saugatuck, Benton Harbor, Saint Joseph, Shoreham, Michiana, Grand Beach, New Buffalo, Three Oaks, Union Pier, Lakeside, Sawyer, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Warren, Canton, Kalamazoo, St Clair Shores, Rochester Hills, Traverse City, Charlevoix, Glen Lake, Torch Lake, Sutton Bay, Petoskey, Muskegon regions, and serving as your Michigan architectural photography company. A photography company based in Chicago, our waterfront real estate includes homes along the coast of Lake Michigan photographing lake homes in Chicago’s North Shore area to Highland Park, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, and more. Visit our About Us page for a comprehensive look at the variety of residential and commercial building companies we provide photography services to. View our Portfolio for additional images and example photographs. Contact us to discuss your waterfront property, residential development, or beach home upcoming photography project in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Chicago, and beyond.

Photos of Skyline View from Top of Centennial Wheel Navy Pier Chicago

Navy Pier Centennial Ferris Wheel Skyline View Chicago

view-chicago-navy-pier-lake-point-tower-skyline

View of Chicago Navy Pier Lake Point Tower Skyline

No visit to Navy Pier Chicago is completed without a ride on the Centennial Wheel. Photos of Chicago’s Skyline view, while riding on top of Centennial Wheel Navy Pier Chicago, are incredible.

On this Fall shoot day, we were captivated by the evening’s sunset, had our camera, and decided to buy tickets and go up for a gondola ride on the Pier’s famous ferris wheel at Navy Pier. Distracted from taking photos by the beautiful golden sunset in the colorful sky and the architectural beauty of the buildings all around us, we decided to wait to get our camera out until atleast the second wheel spin. Deciding to capture a few sightseeing personal moments together of the city buildings, skyscrapers and rainbow colored sky, before photographing the awesome view while circling above the Chicago Skyline. With our profession as Architectural Photographers in Chicago since 2008, we have photographed at nearly every iconic and professional Chicago skyline photography view point around the city. Setting aside some personal time at the end of the day, this was our 2nd time on the Navy Pier’s ferris wheel, but our first time on the Wheel with our professional photo camera & equipment.

What would flying over Navy Pier feel like…? The UAV unmanned aerial vehicle drones technology is evolving. Our creative and curious minds have wondered, what will the future of human passenger drone flying be? Likely in the future, most parts of the city of Chicago will likely remain in a no-fly zone. But what if we were able to fly in the sky over Navy Pier? Would this be the view and reality in the future if and when human passenger drones and us having our own personal flying use of drones is available? If that flight path was allowed, this would be an awesome skyline angle and first person view set of real images we would love viewing every day on our way into the office. Although we are a few years away from human passenger drones being a part of every day human transportation, in the meanwhile, these Navy Pier Centennial Wheel view photos help the mind to imagine what it could be like on a perfect sunset evening, while man operated flying inside a drone over the Chicago skyline. Navy Pier has restrictions about drone use and currently drones are not allowed on the property. Our professional Chicago skyline images at Navy Pier, captured from on-top of the ferris wheel, offer a work around option for incredible in the air, drone-like, city views and images of the Chicago’s buildings and skyline at the Pier.

Navy Pier’s Centennial Wheel is an iconic part of the Chicago skyline and a piece to Chicago cultural history. Soaring up in the air to heights of nearly 200 feet, the Wheel offers visitors unparalleled, 360-degree views of Chicago, famous landmarks & buildings, the John Hancock Building, Lake Point Tower, spire of the Trump and Willis Tower, the Ion Building, Lakeshore East Park Development, the W Hotel Lakeshore, Navy Pier’s Crystal Gardens, the Wave Swinger & Carousel, the Chicago River, Gold Coast neighborhood, Grant Park, Lake Shore Drive, and Lake Michigan. The Navy Pier’s Centennial Wheel has enclosed gondolas providing year-round a comfortable experience and city views of the miraculous Chicago skyline from Navy Pier.

Miller + Miller Architectural Photography are Chicago commercial photographers. Our photography company provides commercial photography and architectural photographs to a variety of clients, industries, organizations, and building companies in Chicago and suburban area in real estate development, architects, skyscraper, construction services, and design build construction. Visit our About Us page for a comprehensive look at the variety of commercial industries and Portfolio for more past projects photographs. Looking to become a client? Count on our experience since 2008 photographing architectural Chicago projects, building shots with views of the skyline, construction marketing images, finished building project photos, construction sites, and more for companies. Contact us to discuss a photo project! Contact us to purchase this Navy Pier Chicago Skyline Stock Photo Image, obtain a stock photography usage license, or purchase a professional photographic print of this Chicago skyline image.