View allAll Photos Tagged ChicagoArchitectureCenter
Lots of intriguing angles, shapes and reflections at @jll property @550westadams
I think another day spent in and around Union Station is necessary.
Views from the 42-floor deck of the Loebl, Schlossman, Bennett and Dart condominium at 2650 N. Lakeview Ave. We lived down the street at 2500 N. Lakeview Ave. for 22 years.
Photograph from Open House Chicago 2018.
There are so many incredible details in @ChiUnionStation I could spend days wandering around with my camera finding them.
I highly recommend the @chiarchitecture tour. Very informative with access to a couple of rooms you never get to see.
This next series of mine will be focused on details. Considering I only had my @CanonUSA 100mm lens with me.
Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is the first African-American congregation in Chicago. Formed in 1844 as a seven-person prayer group, the congregation worshipped in several different locations around downtown Chicago. With many abolitionists among their ranks, the church became a station on the Underground Railroad, offering food, supplies and safe haven for fugitive slaves. The congregants purchased the current property at S. Wabash Avenue and E. 24th Street in 1890 and hired architect Henry F. Starbuck to design this rusticated limestone and brick building with Romanesque massing and Gothic details. The building houses community and administrative services on the first floor, with a sanctuary at the second story. The original wood doors and windows survive, as have most of the fixed art-glass lights at the sanctuary level.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021. Because of time constraints and the having attended a Landmarks Illinois presentation three years ago (at which I recommended Quinn Chapel become an Open House Chicago site), I did not take today’s excellent tour.
There are so many incredible details in @ChiUnionStation I could spend days wandering around with my camera finding them.
I highly recommend the @chiarchitecture tour. Very informative with access to a couple of rooms you never get to see.
This next series of mine will be focused on details. Considering I only had my @CanonUSA 100mm lens with me.
From the stage looking to the back of the house
From the 2016 Open House Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Civic Opera Building
Chicago, Illinois 41.88259,-87.63781
October 15, 2016
While adding a previous picture to the Civic Opera Building
album, I noticed that I didn't have this shot. Even though I remember photographing the interior. Luckily, I save ALL of my pictures and pried this one up from the dusty archives. I don't think I used it at the time because it wasn't very good...too dark, noisy, etc. But I gave it another shot. Still not great, but not bad either.
COPYRIGHT 2016, 2025 by JimFrazier All Rights Reserved. This may NOT be used for ANY reason without written consent from Jim Frazier.
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Driehaus Museum
Chicago, Illinois 41.894168, -87.626249
October 20, 2024
Here is the first picture in the series - with a lot of additional information.
Located at 50 East Erie, the six-story, 32,193-square-foot French Renaissance-style building, purchased by the Driehaus Museum in 2022, was built between 1923 and 1926 by the American College of Surgeons. Designed by noted Chicago architects Benjamin Marshall and Charles E. Fox of Marshall and Fox, the Murphy was used originally to host meetings and serve as a center for education in surgery. Its iconic exterior is Marshall’s interpretation of the double-columned, two-story façade and flanking entry staircase of the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Consolation (1900) in Paris. (from press release)
COPYRIGHT 2024 by JimFrazier All Rights Reserved. This may NOT be used for ANY reason without written consent from Jim Frazier.
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Throwback to times when people actually dressed up to travel.
That's what I am reminded of when I see the beautiful light fixtures at @ChiUnionStation.
I highly recommend the @chiarchitecture tour. Very informative with access to a couple of rooms you never get to see.
This next series of mine will be focused on details. Considering I only had my @CanonUSA 100mm lens with me.
Quick, what's the first thing you think of when you see the stairs at @ChiUnionStation?
I highly recommend the @chiarchitecture tour. Very informative with access to a couple of rooms you never get to see.
This next series of mine will be focused on details. Considering I only had my @CanonUSA 100mm lens with me.
Sears or Willis if you prefer, reflected.
I started a series the last time I was in the city. I haven't posted another image from it in 10 days.
All I carried with me was my @CanonUSA 100mm lens. It was a great challenge to photograph my typical architectural images with it and I can't wait to try again.
Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Ave. has been the church home to many leading citizens, including the Pullmans, Blackstones and Armours. The congregation was organized on June 1, 1842, just five years after the incorporation of the City of Chicago. Three months later, the congregation dedicated its first building, a modest frame building at the southeast corner of Randolph and Clark streets. Construction on the present building, designed by James Renwick Jr., was begun in 1872 at the northwest corner of S. Michigan Avenue and E. 20th (now Cullerton) Street. The design was based on English Gothic churches of the 15th and 16th centuries. It took two years to complete. Following a devastating fire in 1900, the congregation hired Howard Van Doren Shaw and Frederic Clay Bartlett to rebuild the interior in the Arts and Crafts style. Stunning memorial windows made by William Morris & Company, Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Tiffany Studios, McCully & Miles and Louis J. Millet enhance the church's interior. Original Bartlett murals, light fixtures and 175 angels grace the space.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is the first African-American congregation in Chicago. Formed in 1844 as a seven-person prayer group, the congregation worshipped in several different locations around downtown Chicago. With many abolitionists among their ranks, the church became a station on the Underground Railroad, offering food, supplies and safe haven for fugitive slaves. The congregants purchased the current property at S. Wabash Avenue and E. 24th Street in 1890 and hired architect Henry F. Starbuck to design this rusticated limestone and brick building with Romanesque massing and Gothic details. The building houses community and administrative services on the first floor, with a sanctuary at the second story. The original wood doors and windows survive, as have most of the fixed art-glass lights at the sanctuary level.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021. Because of time constraints and the having attended a Landmarks Illinois presentation three years ago (at which I recommended Quinn Chapel become an Open House Chicago site), I did not take today’s excellent tour.
St. Mary of the Lake was established in 1901, at a time when only six Catholic families lived in the Buena Park area. Construction on the current church building at 4200 N. Sheridan Rd., designed by architect Henry J. Schlacks in the Italian Renaissance style, began in 1913. The church was dedicated in 1917, but work continued for years on the lavish interior containing Carrara marble sculpted in Italy, stained-glass made in Germany and a ceiling painted in gilded gold.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2019.
The Aragon Ballroom, completed in 1926 at 1106 W. Lawrence Ave., was designed in the Moorish architectural style, with the interior resembling a Spanish village. Named for a region of Spain, the Aragon was an immediate success and remained a popular Chicago attraction throughout the 1940s. A fire at an adjacent cocktail lounge in 1958 forced the Aragon to close for several months. After the reopening, crowds declined significantly, to the point that regular dancing ended in 1964. A succession of new owners used the Aragon as a roller skating rink, boxing venue, and discothèque, among other uses. It continues as a site for concerts and boxing events.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Uptown walking tour.
Lagunitas Brewing Company Chicago opened in 2014 and is the California beer giant's second brewery. At 300,000-square feet, it is the largest brewery in Chicago. The space at 2607 W. 17th St. was formerly a Ryerson Steel distribution plant.
Photograph from Open House Chicago 2018. It was one of my District Coordinator sites. I did not have time to take the brewery tour.
NOTE: The company announced its closing the brewery and taproom - moving them to California - while keeping the warehouse and distribution facility.
The Monastery of the Holy Cross is a significant early work of architect Hermann J. Gaul, a renowned ecclesial architect of the early 20th century. Recognized for its complex high-vaulted ceiling, the church was completed in 1909 for the German-speaking "national parish" of the Immaculate Conception. The German Gothic Revival church at W. 31st and S. Aberdeen streets incorporates high-Gothic design elements including a high gabled triple-arch entrance, expressive gargoyles and a 14 Gothic-arched, highly decorated Stations of the Cross. The parish closed in 1990, and the Benedictine monastic community was invited to make the building into a unique urban monastery the following year. While some of the original furnishings were lost after the closure, the monks added several religious treasures, most notably altarpiece icons produced in the traditional Byzantine egg tempera method by iconographer Vladislav Andrejev. It was declared a landmark two days previously.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
The Romanesque Revival church at E. 53rd Street and S. Blackstone Avenue was originally organized as the First Presbyterian Church of Hyde Park. The sanctuary, completed in 1889, features large stained-glass windows, a uniquely painted ceiling and a 12-sided dome inscribed with the names of the apostles. An extensive 1924 remodeling added Romanesque arches, pews and a cork floor. The church merged with the Hyde Park Congregational Church in 1930, and its merger in 1970 with the Hyde Park Methodist Church formed the United Church of Hyde Park.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Our Lady of Sorrows was raised to a basilica in 1956 for its artistic value and the work of Mother Novena. Dedicated in 1902, construction began in 1890 at 3121 W. Jackson Blvd. The barrel-vaulted ceiling consists of more than 1,100 separate gold-leafed panels. The high altar is built entirely of white carrara marble. It is one of three basilicas in Chicago.
Photographs from Open House Chicago 2018, one of my District Coordinator sites. This is one of the most impressive sites during this and all Open House weekends.
St. Ita Parish was founded in Edgewater in 1900. The current French Gothic church, which opened at 5500 N. Broadway in 1927, was the highlight of architect Henry Schlacks’ distinguished career as a church architect. The open tower contains 1,800 tons of Bedford limestone and rises to 120 feet in height. Elaborate Gothic detailing marks the altar, but the medallion windows containing more than 200,000 pieces of stained glass, designed by Schlacks, highlight the interior. The sanctuary seats 700.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Originally built in 1917 to house the Boston Company department store, 1 North Dearborn has recently undergone extensive renovations to modernize its offices and amenities. The new rooftop deck features a bar, fireplace, lounge and garden. A mural pays homage to the building’s original tenant, The Boston Store.
The drag-show lounge moved to the Uptown Boardway Building from its N. Clark Street location, its home since 1969, in 2018. Designed by architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, the Spanish Baroque building at 4703 – 4715 N. Broadway was completed in 1926.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Uptown walking tour.
Ebenezer Lutheran Church was organized in 1892. The Swedes who settled in the area completed the sanctuary at 1650 W. Foster Ave. in 1908 (with additions in 1929), and the congregation quickly grew to more than 2,000 members. The sanctuary has beautiful Swedish stenciling along the ceiling, stained glass windows that are the largest of their kind and an intricate altarpiece. A 1987 remodeling carefully preserved the historic elements of the sanctuary. The stairs to the balcony on each side are of different styles; lore has it that the architect, also a prominent local homebuilder, constructed them to show prospective clients two options for staircases.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2019.
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral is the oldest church edifice built specifically as a Greek Orthodox Church in metropolitan Chicago and serves as the mother church in the area. It was established in 1892 by a Greek immigrant community from Laconia and the Greek Islands. In 1909, the Greek Orthodox community paid $18,000 for the lot of city land on which the cathedral stands today. One year later, the cathedral at 1107 N. LaSalle St. was completed at a total cost of around $100,000. It was built after an Athenian cathedral and is currently the oldest surviving Chicago building in the style of a Byzantine church.
The church edifice is divided into three sections. The narthex is the vestibule area and represents this world in which man is called to repentance. The nave, the central portion of the building, represents the kingdom of heaven and the passage from the narthex into the nave symbolizes the Christian's entry into that kingdom. The soleas, the raised platform between the nave and the sanctuary, is reserved for sacraments and liturgical services. The sanctuary is the holiest part of the temple, and the entire architecture and iconography of the church center attention on the Holy Altar within the sanctuary. The nave is separated from the sanctuary by an icon screen or iconostasis. Gates, called royal doors in the center of the screen, lead into the sanctuary and altar area and are used only by ordained Orthodox clergymen. The Holy Altar holds the tabernacle, Gospels book, candles and holy vessels used during the Divine Liturgy.
Photographs at Open House Chicago 2024, the only site we visited. Having returned from New York City two days prior and a few hundred photographs still to edit, research and post, we took a pass on this year’s OHC.
In the courtyard of the Church of the Ascension
Open House Chicago
Near North Side
Chicago, Illinois 41.902964, -87.632625
October 16, 2023
openhousechicago.org/sites/site/church-of-the-ascension-e...
I didn't see any signs, and since I like to photograph St. Francis of Assisi, I'm just going to go ahead and make an assumption. If anyone wants to argue with "my truth", go ahead.
COPYRIGHT 2023 by JimFrazier All Rights Reserved. This may NOT be used for ANY reason without written consent from Jim Frazier.
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St. Mary of the Lake was established in 1901, at a time when only six Catholic families lived in the Buena Park area. Construction on the current church building at 4200 N. Sheridan Rd., designed by architect Henry J. Schlacks in the Italian Renaissance style, began in 1913. The church was dedicated in 1917, but work continued for years on the lavish interior containing Carrara marble sculpted in Italy, stained-glass made in Germany and a ceiling painted in gilded gold.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2019.
3240 S. Federal St., 1901, constructed the same year as Machinery Hall to the south.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Mies & Modernism: The IIT Campus Tour.
Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Ave. has been the church home to many leading citizens, including the Pullmans, Blackstones and Armours. The congregation was organized on June 1, 1842, just five years after the incorporation of the City of Chicago. Three months later, the congregation dedicated its first building, a modest frame building at the southeast corner of Randolph and Clark streets. Construction on the present building, designed by James Renwick Jr., was begun in 1872 at the northwest corner of S. Michigan Avenue and E. 20th (now Cullerton) Street. The design was based on English Gothic churches of the 15th and 16th centuries. It took two years to complete. Following a devastating fire in 1900, the congregation hired Howard Van Doren Shaw and Frederic Clay Bartlett to rebuild the interior in the Arts and Crafts style. Stunning memorial windows made by William Morris & Company, Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Tiffany Studios, McCully & Miles and Louis J. Millet enhance the church's interior. Original Bartlett murals, light fixtures and 175 angels grace the space.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Designed by architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, the Spanish Baroque building at 4703 – 4715 N. Broadway was completed in 1926. One of its tenants is the resale shop for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and The Baton.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Uptown walking tour.
H. H. Richardson's last surviving work in Chicago was commissioned by John and Frances Glessner. The Glessner House’s radical design perplexed neighbors but was quickly embraced by architects for its innovative floor plan. With principal rooms facing inward toward a light-filled private courtyard, it helped create a new American style of residential architecture. Its collection of original furnishings features pieces representing the Aesthetic, Modern Gothic and Arts and Crafts movements of England and the United States. The residence at 1800 S. Prairie Ave. was saved from demolition in 1966, thanks to efforts that resulted in the creation of both Glessner House and the Chicago Architecture Center.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral is the oldest church edifice built specifically as a Greek Orthodox Church in metropolitan Chicago and serves as the mother church in the area. It was established in 1892 by a Greek immigrant community from Laconia and the Greek Islands. In 1909, the Greek Orthodox community paid $18,000 for the lot of city land on which the cathedral stands today. One year later, the cathedral at 1107 N. LaSalle St. was completed at a total cost of around $100,000. It was built after an Athenian cathedral and is currently the oldest surviving Chicago building in the style of a Byzantine church.
The church edifice is divided into three sections. The narthex is the vestibule area and represents this world in which man is called to repentance. The nave, the central portion of the building, represents the kingdom of heaven and the passage from the narthex into the nave symbolizes the Christian's entry into that kingdom. The soleas, the raised platform between the nave and the sanctuary, is reserved for sacraments and liturgical services. The sanctuary is the holiest part of the temple, and the entire architecture and iconography of the church center attention on the Holy Altar within the sanctuary. The nave is separated from the sanctuary by an icon screen or iconostasis. Gates, called royal doors in the center of the screen, lead into the sanctuary and altar area and are used only by ordained Orthodox clergymen. The Holy Altar holds the tabernacle, Gospels book, candles and holy vessels used during the Divine Liturgy.
Photographs at Open House Chicago 2024, the only site we visited. Having returned from New York City two days prior and a few hundred photographs still to edit, research and post, we took a pass on this year’s OHC.
3240 S. Federal St., 1901, constructed the same year as Machinery Hall to the south.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Mies & Modernism: The IIT Campus Tour.
The Episcopal Church of the Atonement was founded in 1888 and began worship in this distinctive red stone building at 5743 N. Kenmore Ave. in 1890. Although the building has been expanded twice – to more than double its original capacity – it has always maintained the English Gothic style from its first architect, Henry Ives Cobb. The sanctuary contains a booming pipe organ. A columbarium lies below the floor where the parishioners’ remains rest. The Parish House was added in 1924, and the sanctuary's stained-glass windows were gradually installed from 1929 to 1946.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral is the oldest church edifice built specifically as a Greek Orthodox Church in metropolitan Chicago and serves as the mother church in the area. It was established in 1892 by a Greek immigrant community from Laconia and the Greek Islands. In 1909, the Greek Orthodox community paid $18,000 for the lot of city land on which the cathedral stands today. One year later, the cathedral at 1107 N. LaSalle St. was completed at a total cost of around $100,000. It was built after an Athenian cathedral and is currently the oldest surviving Chicago building in the style of a Byzantine church.
The church edifice is divided into three sections. The narthex is the vestibule area and represents this world in which man is called to repentance. The nave, the central portion of the building, represents the kingdom of heaven and the passage from the narthex into the nave symbolizes the Christian's entry into that kingdom. The soleas, the raised platform between the nave and the sanctuary, is reserved for sacraments and liturgical services. The sanctuary is the holiest part of the temple, and the entire architecture and iconography of the church center attention on the Holy Altar within the sanctuary. The nave is separated from the sanctuary by an icon screen or iconostasis. Gates, called royal doors in the center of the screen, lead into the sanctuary and altar area and are used only by ordained Orthodox clergymen. The Holy Altar holds the tabernacle, Gospels book, candles and holy vessels used during the Divine Liturgy.
Photographs at Open House Chicago 2024, the only site we visited. Having returned from New York City two days prior and a few hundred photographs still to edit, research and post, we took a pass on this year’s OHC.
Second Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Ave. has been the church home to many leading citizens, including the Pullmans, Blackstones and Armours. The congregation was organized on June 1, 1842, just five years after the incorporation of the City of Chicago. Three months later, the congregation dedicated its first building, a modest frame building at the southeast corner of Randolph and Clark streets. Construction on the present building, designed by James Renwick Jr., was begun in 1872 at the northwest corner of S. Michigan Avenue and E. 20th (now Cullerton) Street. The design was based on English Gothic churches of the 15th and 16th centuries. It took two years to complete. Following a devastating fire in 1900, the congregation hired Howard Van Doren Shaw and Frederic Clay Bartlett to rebuild the interior in the Arts and Crafts style. Stunning memorial windows made by William Morris & Company, Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, Tiffany Studios, McCully & Miles and Louis J. Millet enhance the church's interior. Original Bartlett murals, light fixtures and 175 angels grace the space.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Designed by architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, the Spanish Baroque building at 4703 – 4715 N. Broadway was completed in 1926. One of its tenants is the resale shop for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital and The Baton.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Uptown walking tour.
St. Ita Parish was founded in Edgewater in 1900. The current French Gothic church, which opened at 5500 N. Broadway in 1927, was the highlight of architect Henry Schlacks’ distinguished career as a church architect. The open tower contains 1,800 tons of Bedford limestone and rises to 120 feet in height. Elaborate Gothic detailing marks the altar, but the medallion windows containing more than 200,000 pieces of stained glass, designed by Schlacks, highlight the interior. The sanctuary seats 700.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
The Romanesque Revival church at E. 53rd Street and S. Blackstone Avenue was originally organized as the First Presbyterian Church of Hyde Park. The sanctuary, completed in 1889, features large stained-glass windows, a uniquely painted ceiling and a 12-sided dome inscribed with the names of the apostles. An extensive 1924 remodeling added Romanesque arches, pews and a cork floor. The church merged with the Hyde Park Congregational Church in 1930, and its merger in 1970 with the Hyde Park Methodist Church formed the United Church of Hyde Park.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Sculpture by Lowell Thompson, 2019, in front of the Riviera Theater, 4746 N. Broadway.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Uptown walking tour.
H. H. Richardson's last surviving work in Chicago was commissioned by John and Frances Glessner. The Glessner House’s radical design perplexed neighbors but was quickly embraced by architects for its innovative floor plan. With principal rooms facing inward toward a light-filled private courtyard, it helped create a new American style of residential architecture. Its collection of original furnishings features pieces representing the Aesthetic, Modern Gothic and Arts and Crafts movements of England and the United States. The residence at 1800 S. Prairie Ave. was saved from demolition in 1966, thanks to efforts that resulted in the creation of both Glessner House and the Chicago Architecture Center.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
Designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1956, S.R. Crown Hall at 3360 S. State St. represents his architectural concepts and theories in their most complete and mature form. The building houses IIT's school of architecture. The two-level building is configured as a pure rectangular form, 220 ft. by 120 ft. by 18 ft. tall. The enclosed space is column free with four six-foot steel plate girders welded to eight H-columns. These girders suspend the roof in a single plane to form a primary structure. While the lower level consists of compartmentalized rooms, the upper level occupies almost half of the building’s total area, but only includes one large, open classroom. A major renovation completed in 2005 enhanced its accessibility and functionality, improved overall energy and environmental performance and restored Crown close to its original appearance.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Mies & Modernism: The IIT Campus Tour.
Red Petals, Alexander Calder.
The Arts Club of Chicago was founded in 1916 After several locations over the years, it moved to 109 E. Ontario St.in quarters built to specification designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The gallery was built around Constantin Brâncuși's The Golden Bird, and the stairway was renowned for its simple elegance. The club's move in 1997 to its current location at 201 E. Ontario St. was not without controversy because the club demolished its former interior space designed by Mies van der Rohe and moved only the central staircase to the new gallery space. However, the new space is 19,000 square feet, which is 7,000 square feet larger than the old space.
Photograph from Open House Chicago 2018.
The Monastery of the Holy Cross is a significant early work of architect Hermann J. Gaul, a renowned ecclesial architect of the early 20th century. Recognized for its complex high-vaulted ceiling, the church was completed in 1909 for the German-speaking "national parish" of the Immaculate Conception. The German Gothic Revival church at W. 31st and S. Aberdeen streets incorporates high-Gothic design elements including a high gabled triple-arch entrance, expressive gargoyles and a 14 Gothic-arched, highly decorated Stations of the Cross. The parish closed in 1990, and the Benedictine monastic community was invited to make the building into a unique urban monastery the following year. While some of the original furnishings were lost after the closure, the monks added several religious treasures, most notably altarpiece icons produced in the traditional Byzantine egg tempera method by iconographer Vladislav Andrejev. It was declared a landmark two days previously.
Photograph at Chicago Architecture Center Open House Chicago 2021.
The Chicago Architecture Center Riverboat Tours provide excellent views of many o Chicago' famous buildings. The Wrigley Building (donating the photo) and Tribune Tower (right) are just two of the buildings seen on the tour.
The Aragon Ballroom, completed in 1926 at 1106 W. Lawrence Ave., was designed in the Moorish architectural style, with the interior resembling a Spanish village. Named for a region of Spain, the Aragon was an immediate success and remained a popular Chicago attraction throughout the 1940s. A fire at an adjacent cocktail lounge in 1958 forced the Aragon to close for several months. After the reopening, crowds declined significantly, to the point that regular dancing ended in 1964. A succession of new owners used the Aragon as a roller skating rink, boxing venue, and discothèque, among other uses. It continues as a site for concerts and boxing events.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Uptown walking tour.
Originally built in 1917 to house the Boston Company department store, 1 North Dearborn has recently undergone extensive renovations to modernize its offices and amenities. The new rooftop deck features a bar, fireplace, lounge and garden. A mural pays homage to the building’s original tenant, The Boston Store.
Our docent admitted he didn't know where this stairway leads. It's located next to the site of the proposed but never built Engineering 2 building.
Photograph from Chicago Architecture Center Mies & Modernism: The IIT Campus Tour.
The Chicago Architecture Center's new location on 111 E. Wacker Drive (the Illinois Center).
The Chicago Architecture Center, formerly the Chicago Architecture Foundation, used to occupy a suite in the lower level of the Railway Exchange Building on Michigan Ave. In 2018 they moved to the Illinois Center. The new location gives them closer access to the river for their popular river cruises and provides ample space for their popular model city and retail store.
A new "Amazon Go" location prepared to open to the left.