Geoffrey Baer

Geoffrey Baer is back to traverse the length and breadth of Chicago’s world-famous “front yard” to explore everything from beloved birds to submerged secrets along Chicago’s lakefront. A fascinating journey from the history of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable to modern-day hikes on Northerly Island, fishing for lake trout, and snorkeling on a prehistoric reef, Touring the Lakefront with Geoffrey Baer Geoffrey takes viewers on a journey to discover how our lakefront was envisioned, built, and defended, and how it has evolved over the centuries.

Chicago is known, famously, as “the city that works.” But who keeps it working? In a new 60-minute special, CHICAGO WORKS, Geoffrey Baer meets (and helps) the industrious workers across the city and suburbs who operate the Chicago’s moveable bridges, deliver millions of packages, care for the city’s animals, process recycling, operate the Wrigley Field scoreboard, and more. Along the way, he learns why the 2.6 million residents of “the city of the big shoulders,” as Carl Sandburg described it, are regarded as hard-working, tenacious, and resilient with a well-deserved reputation for Midwestern realness and approachability.

Follow Geoffrey Baer on a heartwarming, nostalgic, and humorous journey as he tells the story of Hanukkah, exploring the time-honored traditions of this joyous Jewish holiday and making a few surprising discoveries along the way. With the help of Chicago-area Jewish and interfaith families and children, musicians, and religious leaders, Geoffrey also sets out to answer some age-old questions, samples seasonal culinary delights, attends a car-top Menorah parade, visits a home lavishly decorated for the holidays, hits a Hanukkah pop-up bar in Wrigleyville, and much more.

Chicago is full of places that take your breath away, from gilded lobbies to verdant parks and eye-bending skyscrapers to glorious sacred spaces. Geoffrey Baer has seen a lot of these stunning locations while exploring the Chicago area for his WTTW documentaries, and his newest special takes you even further into The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago.

For generations, seemingly all paths led through Chicago as trains carrying passengers, livestock, and freight crisscrossed the country. In a new WTTW special and companion website, Riding the Rails, lifelong train enthusiast Geoffrey Baer hops aboard all kinds of trains to tell the story of this essential mode of transport and how it shaped our city. Along the way, he uncovers clues all around us to railroads of the past, recalls the colorful characters who built them and the unsung workers who toiled on them, and reveals why our current rail system is just as vital to Chicago’s existence today.

Did a UFO fly over O’Hare Airport? How did the alligator later named "Chance the Snapper" suddenly appear in Chicago’s Humboldt Lagoon? Is Hull House haunted? Why don’t Chicagoans put ketchup on their hot dogs? WTTW award-winning host/writer/producer Geoffrey Baer sets out to solve these and other puzzlers in WTTW’s CHICAGO MYSTERIES.

In Biking the Boulevards, Geoffrey Baer bikes his way across Chicago, using the city's network of boulevards. The boulevards are wide, tree-lined streets, which connect Chicago's largest parks. This system of parks and boulevards was the first of its kind in the country - imagined nearly 150 years ago. Discover how these boulevards came to be and explore these magnificent parks, from Washington and Sherman Parks on the South Side, to Douglas, Humboldt and Garfield on the West. These green spaces are often overlooked, but they're every bit as beautiful as Chicago's famous lakefront parks. Geoffrey invites you to take a new look at the old neighborhoods that emerged along these boulevards in the 19th Century. Places like Bronzeville, Englewood, Back of the Yards, Lawndale, Humboldt Park, and Logan Square. Many of these enclaves have seen their share of hard times over the years, but hidden just beneath the surface…you'll find some remarkable surprises.

In the epic drama that is Chicago’s history, the Chicago River has played many roles, by turns hero, villain, and underdog. The most iconic river scenes lie near the river’s confluence with Lake Michigan, the junction that gave rise to the city itself, where skyscrapers now exalt the river’s banks and form a spectacular canyon of stunning architecture. But there are many more miles to this story, stretching south into the Sanitary and Ship Canal and winding north through the Skokie Lagoons and the Chicago Botanic Garden. And there’s more to the river than scenery. This story is loaded with river lore. It’s been re-engineered on a scale never seen before in American history. It’s seen heart-wrenching tragedies and given us one-of-a-kind characters. Today, people live, work, and play along the river. A few brave souls have even gone for a dip in its waters. Join Geoffrey Baer and WTTW for a journey along the river that gave birth to Chicago, one of the Most Beautiful Places in Chicago.

10 Buildings that Changed America presents 10 trend-setting works of architecture that have shaped and inspired our American landscape. These aren’t just historic structures by famous architects. These buildings have dramatically influenced our built environment in many ways – and in one case, for over two centuries.

In an area barely ten square blocks, Geoffrey Baer traces the history of the skyscraper in the city where it was born. What makes a city, a city? Is it the buildings? The people? Is it what happened here 100 years ago — or what is happening right now? To find out, we invite you to join us in an urban adventure with WTTW host, writer, and producer Geoffrey Baer’s new multimedia tour through Chicago’s downtown Loop. Explore this site. Listen to the audio stories of the everyday people who inhabit the Loop. Take the tour yourself, with our audio download. Watch the show wherever you are. We know you’ll find one answer for sure. Chicago’s Loop is one of the great American city spaces. Discover its history, architecture, excitement — and most of all, stories.

Since it opened as Municipal Pier in 1916, Navy Pier has been evolving in response to the changing needs of a city on a Great Lake—Chicago. Originally, it was a port for steamer and shipping traffic. It promoted Chicago’s progress to the world, presented concerts and conventions, and once hosted a trade fair that enticed a visit from the Queen of England. The Pier’s history spans the terms of 17 United States presidents, including one who trained as a fighter pilot there; 18 Illinois governors, including one who went to college there; and 15 Chicago mayors, including its first African-American mayor, who held his inauguration there. The Pier served as a training center in both world wars, and was the one-time Chicago home of the University of Illinois. In the late 1970s, Navy Pier launched the city’s signature ChicagoFests. And since the mid-1990s, the Pier has drawn crowds as an amusement destination, tour boat embarcadero, and home to a children’s museum and Shakespearean theater.

Ten American homes designed by visionary architects, their eclectic clients and current homeowners are highlighted. Each home combined form, function and art to challenge the nature of a home and evolving relationship with it.

The story of the South Side of Chicago is a story of immigrants and of migrants, of workers and unions, of political dynasties and sports legacies, art and commerce, progress and struggle. It is a story of Irish, German, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Lithuanian, Croatian, Slovakian, Mexican and African Americans, of blue collars and brownfields, of White Sox and Black Sox – and of one Red Bridge. Above all, the story of Chicago’s South Side is a story of neighborhoods – a rich patchwork quilt of neighborhoods, each with its own origin story, identity, culture, and heroes. And while some South Side neighborhoods might seem defined by how much things stay the same, most demonstrate how much in Chicago continuously evolves. Explore some of the South Side’s neighborhoods and their stories.

When your family piled into the car for a vacation, where did you go? Starved Rock? Lake Geneva? The Dells? Maybe the Indiana Dunes? Or Michigan’s Harbor Country? The road trip is a time-honored tradition. “Are we there yet?” is a familiar refrain, but with Geoffrey Baer behind the wheel, you’ll be asking, “Where are we going next?” WTTW takes Chicago on Vacation to the beloved lakes, resorts, and towns we go to escape life in the city—and the stops we make along the way. Through archival film, old home movies, testimonials, interviews, and beautiful new footage, Geoffrey explores these cherished destinations for rest and recreation now, and in generations past.

Did you ever wish you could travel back in history to find out what happened right on the spot where you’re standing? That’s exactly what WTTW Host Geoffrey Baer did. With his Chicago Time Machine, he peels back layers of fascinating stories all over Chicagoland, going back as far as 14,000 years. We’ve put all of these stories – and many more – together. Happy travels!

Chicago is filled with Architectural wonders from the famous to the hidden treasures waiting to be discovered! Join Geoffrey Baer as he explores seven of the best Chicago has to offer! The seven wonders include: Amazing Hotels, The Ferris Wheel, Heavenly Buildings, Scraping the Sky in Style, Architecture for Animals, That Tiffany Town, The Making of Millennium Park and so much more!

The ride of your life is just a turnstile away! Take a special journey as Geoffrey Baer explores Chicago's ethnic diversity from on-board the 'L.'! This guided front-row tour is a unique, elevated glimpse into the history, cultural life, and architectural features of the city's diverse neighborhoods. Learn the hidden secrets and intriguing stories of sites that may seem commonplace on your daily commute. Explore the hidden wonders of the downtown Loop, Bronzeville, Old town, Wrigleyville, Garfield Park, Bridgeport, Pilsen, Wicker Park, and many more!

History of Chicago from the stage of the Chicago River.

History of the suburbs and towns Northwest of Chicago.

Join us for a journey along our most famous front yard. The eyes of the world were on Chicago's Lakefront on election night 2008 as tens of thousands of people gathered there to celebrate with President-Elect Barack Obama. Chicago's lakefront is unique in the world. It's a seventeen-mile-long people's paradise that belongs to all of us. WTTW's popular on-air host, producer and Chicago Architecture Foundation docent Geoffrey Baer will re-trace his steps in Chicago's Lakefront, an all-new documentary tour shot in High Definition. Chicago's Lakefront debuted on WTTW11 and WTTWD on December 1 just a month before the start of the 100th anniversary year of Daniel Burnham's great Plan of Chicago, which transformed the lakefront into an unbroken ribbon of public parks.

History of the suburbs and towns North of Chicago.

Take a journey along the waterways, highways, and railways of Chicago's South Suburbs and Northwest Indiana. Starting in Gary, with a look inside the largest still mill in the Western Hemisphere, travel along the Lake Michigan shoreline to Chicago's Calumet Harbor and cruise the Calumet River to Blue Island. From there, visit Robbins, hop in a Model A Ford, and head south on the historic Dixie Highway through the beautiful communities of Homewood, Flossmoor, Olympia Fields, Chicago Heights, and many more.

Join Geoffrey Baer for his newest engaging Chicago tour program, which covers Chicago's historic Western suburbs. Highlights include Brookfield Zoo, McDonald's headquarters, some Frank Lloyd Wright architectural treasures, Morton Arboretum, the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus, the original Kiddieland in Melrose Park, the annual Pet Parade in LaGrange, a famous Hillside cemetery where Al Capone is buried, and much, much more. Geoffrey’s fascinating trek takes you westward from Cicero to Naperville, and then returns east from Wheaton to Oak Park, visiting more than twenty-five fascinating communities.

Documentary showing some of the partially hidden history and art in the city of Chicago.

It's a part of Chicago that's full of surprises. It's home to a 28-square-mile forest with a rock canyon. It's where one of the Blues Brothers did time (along with thousands of other real-life convicts). And it's the setting for Chicago's most famous ghost story. It's home to major league soccer and minor league baseball. Chicago's largest Arab and Ghanaian communities are here. It's also home to a bustling industrial canal where salty mariners navigate a Panama Canal-sized lock past a hundred-year-old hydroelectric dam. This modern waterway follows the path of a 19th century canal that first connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. That earlier canal transformed Chicago from an isolated trading post on the edge of the American frontier into the fastest-growing city in the history of the world.

You are what you eat goes the old saying. So what can we learn about Chicagoans from the food on our plates? WTTW 11's Geoffrey Baer plays both taste-tester and tour guide, exploring the little-known stories behind Chicago's favorite foods.

It's a journey that starts at Blarney Island, a rowdy bar in the middle of a lake accessible only by boat, and ends sixty miles down the Fox River at Mies Van Der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, one of the world’s greatest examples of minimalist modern architecture. Between those two extremes you’ll discover a world of amazing history and colorful characters. Geoffrey Baer takes viewers on a trip along the historic Fox River from the Chain O’ Lakes in far northern Illinois, all of the way south to Aurora.

In this sequel to WTTW's popular Hidden Chicago special, Geoffrey Baer explores dusty attics, deep tunnels and the candy aisle at Walgreen's in search of fascinating fragments of Chicago's past and little-known stories behind things we see and use every day.