A Must See Museum for the Literary Tourist
While staying in Chicago on a two-day business trip, I had one free morning to sightsee. With so much to see and so little time to do so, I was faced with an anxiety-inducing decision. I wanted an experience off the beaten path of well-trodden tourist attractions so I did some googling to searching for “unusual museums” and “unique attractions.” My search led me to the American Writers Museum located on Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile. Perfect! I can visit the museum and get my writer’s fix then walk to Millenium Park for selfies with the city’s popular attractions.
For this writer and bibliophile, I had planned the ideal morning. The American Writers Museum opened in 2017 “to celebrate the enduring influence of American writers on our history, our identity, our culture, and our daily lives.” It seemed a bold risk, investing in an attraction that showcases a profession lacking the visual drama of Chicago’s well-known landmarks, architecture and other museums.
Writers toil alone and words aren’t particularly selfie material. I wondered how the founders managed to fill an entire museum with something others want to see and experience sans the social media lure of competing attractions? The museum supersedes the visual limits of words by capturing the behind-the-scenes struggle— a writer’s daily summoning of the personal muse in hopes of entering that ethereal dimension of creative flow where all sense of time is lost as the words pour forth.
Bob Dylan: Electric Exhibit at American Writers Musem in Chicago
The ever-evolving exhibits feature the works and bios of authors, poets, and songwriters. During my visit, the museum featured a temporary exhibit celebrating Bob Dylan’s Pulitzer Prize in 2016 for literature. Open to the public through April 30, 2019, Bob Dylan: Electric spotlights Dylan’s writing – song, poetry, and prose – between his 1965 Newport Folk Festival performance and 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.
For me, the main attraction is the Jack Kerouac digital scroll of his novel, On the Road. Kerouac wrote his famous novel in a stream of consciousness in just three weeks, on telegraph paper that he taped together and trimmed to fit into his typewriter. The digital scroll is the first draft of the novel published in 1957, a fictionalized account of the author’s cross country road trips.
Jack Kerouac was the son of French-Canadian immigrants and saw himself as a cultural outsider.
Kerouac drew inspiration from Jazz and its musical improvisations in his approach to writing his novel. Jim Irsay, owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts football team, purchased Kerouac’s 120-foot long original scroll which is cared for by James Canary, an expert in the preservation of paper from the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana.
James Canary, an expert in the preservation of paper from the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana
The Lilly Library is the main repository for rare books, manuscripts, and special collections of Indiana University
On the Road became a defining work of the Beat Generation, a loose collaborative of artists and writers who rejected the mainstream in favor of the experimental and spiritual.
My other favorite exhibit was Mind of a Writer. This walls of this inspirational gallery are filled with quotes from famous writers about their creative process and craft.
The gallery offers insights into how a writer thinks as well as the daily discipline and habits necessary to get the work done.
I was intrigued by the raw honesty in many of the quotes that capture a writer’s self-doubt and fear that they will never be published— that lurking dread that they have gambled away their time on a manuscript that no one reads.
Another highlight of my visit was the First Lines exhibit, a wall of handwritten first sentences of novels written by accomplished authors.
Many of these authors crafted their first lines for stories that have yet to be written.
Whether you consider yourself an author, a journalist, a creative writer or diarist, we all have a shared experience that is made tangible among the museum’s galleries and personified through the literary greats featured. I highly recommend a visit to the American Writers Museum to experience Chicago’s literary treasure.
The American Writers Museum located in the International Harvester Building at 180 N. Michigan Ave, Chicago.
The museum sits in the historic former International Harvester Building at 180 N. Michigan Ave, just a few blocks from Millennium Park.
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by famed architect Frank Gehry in Millennium Park, Chicago.
On the way back to my hotel, I stopped by to take my requisite selfies of the iconic attractions in this urban art park including the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by famed architect Frank Gehry; the digital media Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture.
Karen LeBlanc, aka The Design Tourist, taking a selfie in front of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park, Chicago.
Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa in Millennium Park, Chicago
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I cap off the evening taking in the light show on the surface of the Beacon and Code Wall overlooking the town center. 
The community took root in 1996 when Tavistock purchased Lake Nona Golf and Country Club and began building out its master plan, along the way curating an impressive collection of public art. Today, Lake Nona is home to approximately 15 thousand residents and growing. In 2018, Lake Nona sold 750 homes with 550 families moving in. Most of the community’s
Today, Medical City encompasses more than 2.6 million square feet of clinical, institutional and laboratory buildings. The University of Central Florida has a strong presence in Medical City with the UCF Health Sciences Campus that includes the College of Medicine, the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, and the University of Central Florida (UCF) Lake Nona Cancer Center, which recently moved into a 175,000-square-foot facility vacated by the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. 
Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute recently relocated into a larger, new 35,000-square-foot facility double the size of its previous Lake Nona building. In 2020, UCF Lake Nona Medical Center is set to open as a UCF/HCA Healthcare teaching hospital.
Lake Nona also is a living lab for human performance with a Sports & Performance District, anchored by the USTA National Center, the largest tennis campus in the world with 100 courts in a 270,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility on 64 acres.
Sprinkled throughout the community are retail venues including Lake Nona Village, Lake Nona Plaza, Vickrey Place, Laureate Park Village Center and Lake Nona Creekside which opened in 2019. Soon, residents will be able to use an app to summon a self-driving shuttle to the many nearby amenities. 
The 15-passenger, the battery-powered vehicle has no driver, no steering wheel, no gas pedal, and no brake pedal. Once in operation, they will be the first-ever autonomous public transit vehicles in Central Florida. Launched by the company Beep, headquartered in Lake Nona, and manufactured by Navya, a French company, these autonomous shuttles are marked with decals that read “go-beep.com” and “MOVE NONA.”
Created by 
Anchoring Lake Nona is a mammoth 
“The latest tile trends comprise the most nuanced and interesting design language we have ever had at our disposal. Tiles tell stories through the spaces we create for them. Ceramics this year are daring us to express ourselves and providing all the technical and aesthetic solutions to do so 
Simple and sleek steps aside for the more-is-more design language of Maximalism, expressed in tile with bold colors and contrasting patterns.
Maximalism brings a vibrancy to interior design that in recent years has been zombified with minimalism. Tile designs in clashing prints are expressed as graphic interruptions in contemporary living spaces without overpowering.
Maximalism, on the trend radar since 2018, gains traction as the leading design ethos with decadent textures, colorful tones and pattern clashes.
Self-expression in living spaces becomes playful with asymmetrical, randomized looks in the latest tile styles. Urban inspired designs such as graffiti also lighten up a living space. 
Popular cartoons illustrated on ceramic with Del Conca’s Felix the Cat and pop art inspired graphics take tremendous creative license to experiment with color, size and patterns to create one-of-a-kind surfacing for architects and designers. 
Some of t
One example is Dash by Raw Color with its grid-like pattern, random ever-changing rectangular compositions that combine different shades and different lengths. 
Modern interpretations of Art Deco, the Roaring 20s and organic art nouveau styles are gaining traction in living spaces. Tile designs draw influences from all of the aspects of the era, from fashion to lighting, architecture to jazz and a bohemian spirit in literature, photography, and theatre.
Tile styles reference Cubism, organic floral textiles of the period and geometric 
At the Coverings show, blue made a strong showing in tile designs with blue hues layered on floors and walls.
Expect to see a lot of c
Ceramic Wallpaper
Large porcelain slabs with minimal grout lines create the effect of wallpaper with the technical benefits of ceramic. 
These patterns are digitally printed on large ceramic surfaces that can be used as furnishing elements.
Dramatic Veins
Stone looks are making strong statements with dramatic veining amping up common varieties of stone including carrara, statuario, and travertine. “Popular aggressive stone looks include marble, granites, onyx and quartzite with dramatic veins and patterns,” says Fasan.
Dark marble looks with large swaths dominate this stone-inspired tile category according to Tile Council of North America. Also expect to see more tone on tone larger veins and intense contrast veining.
I saved the best for last. The following tile styles are my favorite picks at Coverings 2019. They rank at the top of my design radar for their fresh designs, fascinating textures and innovative technologies. My best in show pick is The Foundry Collection because it embodies all of the latest trends in tile: imperfectly perfect styling with its timeworn, weathered surfaces, strong use of blue, and mix of textured tile in random patterns. It really encompasses all that is happening at the forefront of design at the moment.
Also, I spotted several collections worth of show stopper status including this worn blue jean inspired tile with a texture that mimics the feel of denim.
My final show stopper pick is this modern interpretation of Terrazzo with geometric accents and large flecks. 
The Adirondack Folk School is on my must-see list of authentic experiences that connect travelers wit
