Adjacent to the Chicago Tribune Tower sits the Equitable Building with its tall windows and sturdy aluminum-covered spandrel beams. At first glance, these two buildings are complete contradictions: the ornate Tribune Tower acts as a testament to the revival of medieval Gothic architecture, while the Equitable’s more austere minimalism was inspired by mid-century modern design. 

Directly across the river, near the sidewalk’s edge of 111 W. Wacker Drive, Jill Carlson directs the group of tourists with her to look toward the two buildings. She shines that signature smile and periodically glances at her notecards as information flows naturally from her lips. 

Carlson has been working as a docent for the Chicago Architecture Center for about 12 years. Her life has always been, and her heart will be, with Chicago. 

Carlson met her husband, Bruce, at a party just outside the city, and the two married in 1965. They bought a house in the south suburbs and raised their three children there — Cathe, Michael and Matthew. 

 Carlson and her family would come into the city on special occasions — for the Christmas window displays, lunch at the Walnut Room, live theater productions. She had always hoped to get a chance to live closer to the life, loudness and never-ending activity of the city. 

 But she said it wasn’t really suited for her family at the time. 

 “My husband worked in the city and wasn’t really interested in (living here),” Carlson said. “The suburbs are where we had grown up and that’s where we went back.” 

 Her kids grew older, moved away and started lives of their own. Carlson and Bruce stayed in their house in the south suburbs for as long as they could, but Bruce had begun to develop a valve issue — his aortic valve. 

 In 2012, at age 71, he was scheduled for open-heart surgery. Carlson and Cathe sat in the surgical waiting room. After a few hours, a nurse came out and spoke to them. 

 “It’s just going to be a little long … just a little longer,” they were told. 

 Carlson and her daughter waited. They waited and they waited and they waited. Finally, Bruce’s doctor emerged. 

 “We knew the minute the doctor came out of the surgery that things had not gone well,” Cathe Carlson said. “The doctor said, ‘I didn’t know his heart was this damaged.’” 

 He survived, but it wasn’t the same, they said. The year that followed, Bruce bounced from an acute care facility back to their house in the suburbs and then to a nursing home. Over time, he went blind, had to be tube fed and was eventually placed back on a ventilator. 

 Carlson was there to visit him once a day if not twice, every day she could. 

 “My dad was young by today’s standards when he died,” Cathe said. “That’s the one thing that stays with me. … He shouldn’t have died. He just should not have died. It was a year of him dying, a little bit every day.” 

 At the time, Carlson was studying to be a docent. After visiting her husband throughout the week, she would travel into the city to study for training. She’d sometimes barely catch the last train out of the city. 

 “It gave me something good that was happening in my life,” Carlson said. “At least, I can talk about (Bruce) now. … I couldn’t, for a long time.” 

 After Bruce passed in 2013, Carlson downsized and found a one-bedroom apartment near Oak Street Beach. If she leans right while looking out the window — and there are no leaves on the trees — she can see Lake Michigan. 

 She loves small street theaters, Millennium Park during the summer and her almost daily walk through Lincoln Park Zoo. 

 During her time-off, which is often few and far between, Carlson travels with friend and fellow docent Nancy Schwab. They have been to Paris, Budapest, Prague and many other cities both in and outside of the country.

 “She’s up for anything,” Schwab said. “Anytime we can go somewhere together, we have a really good time. … She keeps herself busy — you don’t even know!” 

 With a chuckle, Cathe shares a similar sentiment and said that her mom runs her ragged every time she visits Chicago from her home in Arizona. She is on the move all the time. 

 “When we’re walking downtown, the family joke is that we have to hear about every single building in the city of Chicago — even if we’ve heard it five times before,” Cathe said. “It always starts with, ‘You see that building over there … ?’” 

 She added, “If you go on one of her tours, you will see how much love she has for the city and how proud she is of being a docent.” 

 After walking past Millennium Park, the Palmer House and the Gene Siskel Theater, Carlson leads the tourists down North State Street and emerges back onto West Wacker. She stops, yet again, in front of the Tribune Tower and the Equitable Building. 

 She tells her group to look across the river, at the great city of Chicago and all the unimaginable variety of buildings, restaurants, events — and people. When all the ornamentation is stripped away, they are all almost identical in structure, heart and soul. 

 This work — these past 12 years sharing this place with others — is second only to her daughter, sons, grandkids and Bruce.  

 “I love it as much now as when I started,” Carlson said. “(Every place on the tour) tells a story and I’m a part of telling that story of Chicago.”

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