Boystown Rainbow Pylons

The twenty steel-and-neon rainbow pylons that run down North Halsted Street between Belmont and Grace Avenues were installed by the City of Chicago in October 1998 as part of a $3.2 million neighbourhood streetscape investment. It was the first municipal recognition of a gay neighbourhood anywhere in the United States. No comparable US city had — at that date — publicly funded permanent infrastructure marking a queer neighbourhood. The pylons are 25 feet tall, of coated steel, in a stylised art-deco form; each has rainbow-coloured LED banding that fluoresces at night. Their designer was Chicago architect Ross Barney. The pylons themselves are the base on which the Legacy Walk's memorial plaques (see separate entry) have been mounted since 2012. The pylons' installation was politically contested at the time. Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration authorised the streetscape as part of a broader Chicago policy of recognising ethnic and cultural neighbourhoods (Chinatown, Little Italy, Andersonville's Swedish district); the queer authorisation triggered a Chicago city council debate. The final vote installed the pylons unchanged. The pylons operate as public infrastructure — nothing to enter, nothing to buy, no schedule. Photographers cluster during Pride Sunday (last Sunday in June) when the Halsted route is closed for the parade. Best photographed at dusk when the LED banding first lights up. Free, 24/7, entire length walkable in about fifteen minutes. Belmont Red Line at the southern end.