The Best-Designed Spaces in Chicago

As a metropolis - wide laboratory for architectural innovation and experimentation , Chicago is naturally a world - renowned hotbed for design ( and the best architecture tours to the boot ) . Like in any scientific discipline lab , some experiment will inevitably output more solid result than others , bringing us to 15 of the coolest - designed space on our city block .

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

As a 24.5 - Akko rooftop garden build atop an underground parking service department , Millennium Park is a remarkable growing in and of itself ( it ’s one of ourseven wonders of Chicago , after all ) . But the park ’s sculptural music pavilion design by world - renowned architect Frank Gehry adopt halfway stage . Utilizing $ 60 million and 870 tons of brushed stainless sword , its billowing headgear stand 120 ft high and a treillage of crisscross pipes ( equipped with a sophisticated auditory sensation system ) stretches from the level over the great lawn .

The Rookery

The LaSalle St fiscal corridor social system ’s name come to to the warmheartedness that pigeons and crows ( ravens and castle ) had for the pre - existing municipal structure . In 1888 , architects Daniel Burnham and John Root design the commercial office space with a stunning , skylit lobby , which maximizes the amount of light and melodic phrase in the building . An oriel staircase wander down from the twelfth floor , associate the central atrium with the light court at the mezzanine horizontal surface . The lobby was later renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1907 , and is his only live business district project .

The Chicago Theatre

The Loop ’s 3,600 - seat " atmospheric " theater designed by C.W. Rapp and George L. Rapp in 1921 is a splendid deterrent example of the Greco-Roman American cinema palace . From the off - white glazed terra cotta exterior with the heroic marquise to the midland Versailles - inspired third house , Paris opera house - influenced terrific staircase , and Louis XIV furnishings , every spectacular inch was weigh in the Neo - Baroque French - Revival expressive style . The entire pavilion was replaced in 1994 ( though it retains the look of its harbinger ) , and the building undergo refurbishment in the 1930s , 1950s , and finally a nine - month , multi - million dollar redevelopment to salvage it from demolition in the eighties ( reopen with a gala affair performance by Frank Sinatra ) . Rapp and Rapp go on to project one C of theaters across the country , including others in Chicago like The Riviera , The Uptown , and The Oriental .

The Art Institute of Chicago Modern Wing

The delicate structural similitude to the museum ’s 1893 Beaux Arts building was designed by Pritzker Prize - come through designer Renzo Piano with a glass - and - brand window dressing , impossibly slender columns , and a floating roof . The 264,000sqft Modern Wing is the great expansion in the museum ’s history , and put it in the ranking for second largest museum in the body politic after The Met . While the wing ’s east and west facade give homage to the original body structure with limestone outside , the north - facing floor - to - ceiling windows offer up loose view of Millennium Park . A long , whimsical bridgeway plug in light - fill galleries of postwar and contemporaneous nontextual matter to the park ’s works across the street .

Chicago Cultural Center

The Beaux Arts construction originally designed by Boston architects Shepley , Rutan & Coolidge in 1897 to be Chicago ’s first public subroutine library became the national first spare , metropolis - operate cultural shopping centre . The marble- and mosaic - meet hub of contemporary arts and culture hosts the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial . Preston Bradley Hall ’s mesmerizing Tiffany dome – the humans ’s large – bill 38 ft in diam and contains 30,000 pieces of drinking glass , and now shines with newly - restored opalescent color .

Museum of Science and Industry

Originally built to establish a substantial metropolis - wide reputation of culture and commerce for the 1893 World ’s Columbian Exposition , the D.H. Burnham & Co.-designed building serves as a gateway to Chicago ’s South Side . True to the Beaux Arts - style , it ’s symmetrically arrange in the form of a cross with a with child dome rising at its center , and adorned in classical , Parthenon - inspired embellishment carved into exterior column . Since 1933 , the primary entree ’s iconic columns have welcomed visitant to more than 400,000sqft of interactive display space at the largest science eye in the Western Hemisphere .

Harold Washington Library

The boldly postmodernist fundamental library for the Chicago Public Library System was built in 1991 by architect house Hammond , Beeby & Babka , who won the city ’s 1987 intent contest to replace the old library ( now the Cultural Center ) . Drawing from element of nearby historical buildings , the program library playfully incorporate tons of symbols that salute its architectural predecessors , celebrate its location , and declare its function – giant owls on the exterior equate to Wisdom of Solomon . An interior architectural highlight , the glass rooftop garden penthouse on the ninth floor , Winter Garden , features abundant , raw light and a unadulterated outer space for quiet contemplation in the bustling heart of Downtown yr - circular .

New Regal Theater (Avalon Theater)

The 2,500 - seat landmark theater in South Chicago , which spread in 1927 as the Avalon Theater ( renamed in 1987 as a protection to the original Regal Theater in Bronzeville ) , was make by John Eberson , a prolific intriguer of " atmospheric " theatre . qualify by its exotic , lavish decor , the Moorish Revival - style transported theatergoers into a far - off land of hotshot - filled sky , glistening gem , geometrical decoration , warm coloring , and lush gardens . An exterior mural harkens back to its history of far-famed malarkey and blues performers like Duke Ellington , Louis Armstrong , and Stevie Wonder . close for most of the last decade with a few exceptions like Open House Chicago , the dramaturgy remains a beacon fire of fantasy with a chance of beingrevived through holographic performances .

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago

Designed by designer Bertram Goodhue and named for its primary presenter , John D. Rockefeller , the Gothic Revival chapel service on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park stand as the most fundamental and tall edifice on campus by covenant . The 1,700 - can structure occupies most of a block , and was built in 1928 without any structural blade . The modernised medieval trend sacrifice some ornament for unobjectionable lines and unadorned surface . In increase to the nigh 70 figurative sculpture and upcountry mosaic work and wood carving , the chapel service contains one of the populace ’s largest carillons ( an instrument of 72 musical bells ) , a sizable Skinner organ , and a cutting of the architect take a model of the chapel service itself .

Chicago Botanic Garden

The city ’s sprawl 385 Akko of landscaped garden showcases 2.5 million plants and efflorescence in a change of setting yr - round . Situated on nine different islands , it feature 26 gardens like the Japanese Garden by famed native garden graphic designer and architect Koichi Kawana , and is surround by four innate habitats : McDonald Woods , Dixon Prairie , Skokie River Corridor , and Lakes and Shores . Visionary landscape painting architects John O. Simonds and Geoffrey Rausch ’s captain programme was the impetus for the architectural design for the gardens , which opened to the public in 1972 .

Chicago Athletic Association Hotel

For more than 110 twelvemonth , the landmark Venetian Gothic building designed by Henry Ives Cobb in 1893 housed a historic , exclusive human ’s club . After most a decade of vacancy , Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and plan business firm Roman and Williams transform it into a twenty-first - century luxury hotel in 2015 . From reinforce geomorphologic columns to carry the weight of a sleek , new rooftop bar and eating house to fully restitute the old - world craftsmanship to its original elegance , the Michigan Ave mainstay opened to the public for the first sentence in account . supporter are even welcome to explore distinctive spaces beyond the exquisitely restored anteroom and regalia of cocktail bars / secret plan way like breathtaking ballrooms and gymnastic rooms .

Marina City towers

Forward - thinking architect Bertrand Goldberg did n’t think architectural design should let in right slant since they did n’t subsist in nature . Clearly , his 65 - storey residential mix - use towers resembling corncobs reflected this belief . The bays beam from the edifice ' strong fundamental cores , so each zep - shaped building block boasts stunning balcony views . A " city within a urban center , " the building complex included two residential column , plus an role building , theater , retail distance , and parking for residents ' cars and boats . His experiment in urban keep in the 1960s has led to many residential commixture - use developments attracting people to live and ferment downtown today .

Bahá’í House of Worship

One of only eight in the mankind , the North American temple ( also bang as " Mother Temple of the West " ) is the largest and oldest surviving Bahá’í House of Worship . The bewitching complex body part on the Lake Michigan shoreline is made of bloodless cement concrete cladding with clear and livid quartz congeries . The nine - sided building ’s most decorative element is its exterior tracery on the towers , which are intertwined with well - agnize symbols of many humanity religion . While construction began in 1921 , the salient Chicago turning point was n’t complete until 1953 because of the Great Depression and WWII . It ’s now undetermined to the public every daylight of the year .

McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum

Did you be intimate that pedestrian tunnels run under the Chicago River or why the river flows backward ? initiate at the river tier , catch up on the city ’s account from inside the five - story DuSable bridgehouse on Michigan Ave . crown by an urn and a pyramidical roof above an emphatic pelmet , the bridgehouse on this famed trunnion bascule bridge is a classifiable feature film of the city ’s substructure . Get 360 - grade perspective from the embellished Beaux Arts pillar and a behind - the - scene look at the massive gears that power the transferrable , double - decker bridge designed by Edward Bennett in 1920 .

Aqua Tower

In 2009 , architect Jeanne Gang and her business firm , Studio Gang , created an aesthetic for a functional skyscraper that put her on Chicagoans ' architectural radar . The magniloquent building in the US designed by a adult female - owned firm is a modern box wall with behind - rippling , clean concrete ( root on by Midwestern limestone ) balconies that give it a sculptural character . The satellite - well-disposed skyscraper ’s undulation - mould balconies are even arranged for each unit to watch at least one of six sites : Oak Street Beach , Navy Pier , Cloud Gate in Millennium Park , the Lake Street " L " cartroad , the commons in Lakeshore East , or Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park .

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Nicole Bruceis a contributing writer for Thrillist . She would n’t mind balcony views of the beach or The Bean , but window views of the brick building next door will have to do for now . happen her on Twitter at@nicoleabruce .

Jay Pritzker Pavilion Chicago