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The artist Hui-min Tsen doesn’t remember when she first discovered the Pedway, but she remembers her first walk through, from the beginning (State and Wabash) to the end (beneath the Swissotel). It was on her birthday, and the approximately two-hour walk took her six or seven hours. “I stopped in hotels, got snacks,” she says, “but I also got lost a lot.” After that, whenever she had some spare time, she would take a quick stroll. Eventually, although she still sometimes gets lost in the Pedway, she started giving tours that were also performance art. And now she has published a guidebook, The Pedway of Today.
The Pedway is perfect for meandering walks and thoughts because, despite appearances, it doesn’t actually lead anywhere. “It looks like it should have been planned,” says Tsen, “but it spontaneously evolved. I was attracted to the lack of focus and impracticality.”
