The water tanks that dot the urban terrain of commercial and factory buildings in Chicago hark back to a different time and place. A water tank is a highly efficient system for keeping water on hand as a precious resource, and while it has been replaced by modern sprinkler systems and computerized technology, there is nothing about a water tank that you can improve upon for its sheer practicality. It's a shame they have not continued to be utilized for their original intentions, and they are rapidly going the way of such Chicago dinosaurs as Meigs Field, the Stock Exchange Building, Polk Brothers Department Store, the Granada Theater, and Pilgrim Baptist Church.

Water tanks remind me of telephone poles and telegraph wires that were strung across the landscape for the practical purposes of basic communication. They were built for much the same reason the railroads tore through the American wilderness in the 19th century and meant progress, increased commerce and the free movement of ideas. Now we have wireless communication, cars, airplanes and the Internet. Who is to say that telephone poles will not be chopped down in years to come, and replaced by a newer mode of delivery? Like the water tanks of Chicago, telephone poles and exposed wires are a symbol of another era, and there are poignant examples of the juxtaposition of wires and water tanks with their majestic steel platforms in this book. They convey a grand beauty and a stark expediency. Wires carry electricity and sound, water tanks store vast amounts of water for later use: a no-nonsense approach to conquering nature.

There has been a recent effort among preservationists and architectural enthusiasts to save the water tanks of Chicago. The photographs and paintings of Larry Green are simple and powerful and convey a blast-furnace realism. It is all about keen observation of things in your environment, and this book is a kind of clarion call to save the magnificent and thoroughly distinctive water tanks in Chicago, and to make readers aware of something both commonplace and yet extraordinary in their midst. The water tanks incorporate everything that is iconic about the city of Chicago, and this book you are holding in your hands is an attempt to make you see it for yourself.

Eric Miller
Editor & Publisher, Wicker Park Press, Ltd