Window washer
Corporate Cleaning Services
“I work with a partner on the John Hancock Center [pictured]. It takes us an hour to pull out the scaffold from the top and another hour to get the scaffold back up at the end of the day. It takes us 14 days to do the whole building. The most difficult part is actually the bottom windows, because they are deep in the walls and hard to reach. Also tricky are overhead windows, like at the Monadnock Building [53 W. Jackson Blvd.]. For those, we need to swing harder and use a suction pat. But if we swing too hard, we can break the window. The worst thing that’s happened to me was when a rope tore apart while I was cleaning Newberry Plaza and I fell five stories before I was caught by my security harness. I’m aware of the risks of my work, but I enjoy the view.” —Interview by Octavio LopezPhoto: Clayton Hauck
Associate conservator of paintings
Art Institute of Chicago
“Restoring the early modern European paintings in our collection, making sure they look the way the artists intended, is almost like detective work. We examine the painting carefully with microscopes, and we use ultraviolet light, infrared light, and x-rays to make sure we fully understand how it was made. Then it’s a delicate process in which we clean the surface with small Q-Tips while not disturbing the original paint layers. I also dust the paintings in the galleries as needed with a badger-hair brush. It’s soft enough that it won’t scratch the surface and won’t shed bristles or leave a residue. The gallery in this photograph has three paintings I restored, including Picasso’s Mother and Child [at right]. While restoring it, I got to take x-ray images of a male figure that the painting originally included. Picasso literally cut it out by cutting off a strip along the left edge of the canvas and then painting over the rest of the figure.” —Interview by Tomi ObaroPhoto: Clayton Hauck.
Senior manager of scoreboard operations and TV production
Chicago White Sox
“I direct the camera crew and our technicians—there’s 25 of us—during games at U.S. Cellular Field, from the scoreboard control room [pictured]. When there’s a home run hit by the White Sox, one of my technicians puts in a code that sets an electrical pulse underneath the stadium. There’s two pyrotechnicians who are behind the scoreboard with fireworks loaded and ready to go. We have to make sure that we do it at the right time though, so they wait for me to give them the instruction. There can be a few ‘Is it a home run or not?’ moments, so we always wait for the umpires to actually signal it. There’s some pressure in my job, but we do a lot of preparation and planning in the weeks before the game.” —Interview by T.O.Photo: Clayton Hauck
Founder and owner
Propabilities
“I started renting home-related items to people who work in advertising, photography, TV shows, and movies in 1986 after I was laid off from a photo studio. I rent regularly to the shows Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Sirens. They come in when they are setting up a new character’s home—sometimes it’s a kitchen, sometimes a bedroom, sometimes a living room, sometimes an office. I just supplied 45 feet of law books to Chicago P.D. I rented some jail toilets to Sirens. I bought them from that show Prison Break after it ended. I get my stuff from everywhere—house sales, estate sales, wholesale, retail. When movies stop shooting, sometimes they’ll dump their stuff here. Somebody gave me an airplane seat that was used in a United commercial.” —Interview by T.O.Photo: Clayton Hauck
Senior mechanical technician
Fermilab
“We moved the Muon g-2 ring [a 50-foot-wide electromagnet that physicists at Fermilab, in Batavia, will use to study a subatomic particle called a muon] from the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. We disassembled the machines and detectors there and transported the g-2 ring cross-country on a truck. I’m in charge of reassembling the pieces, which is a yearlong process. It’s like a thousand-piece puzzle. One day I could be moving a 53,000-pound piece of steel with a crain and another doing vacuum testing. We have to be very careful because the coils inside the magnet that produce the current are very fragile. Here, I’m holding a cryogenic control valve. It’s a liquid nitrogen control that will help cool the magnet once it’s energized.” —Interview by T.O.Photo: Clayton Hauck
Senior aquarist
Shedd Aquarium
“I work with the Wild Reef exhibit. That’s all Pacific saltwater tropical animals—everything from corals to our big sharks. I feed them, make their gravel beds, clean the windows, and monitor them. This exhibit represents the end of the reef as it goes into the open ocean, so it’s more dimly lit than the other tanks, meaning there’s less algae to clean. It’s 20 feet deep. I always go in with another diver as a safety precaution. We’re usually in for about an hour. I really like diving with our Napoleon wrasse fish. He liked the pink gloves I wore one day. He came over to watch me scrub the window, and when I went down, he would go down. It’s such a neat environment. You’re in their world, and because you’re not able to talk, all your other senses are heightened. It’s very calming.” —Interview by T.O.Photo: Clayton Hauck