MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY
A remnant of the famous White City exhibition at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, owing to the fact that it was one of the few buildings made with brick, the building we now know as the Museum of Science and Industry has gone by many different names. Known as The Palace of Fine Arts at the fair and designed by Burnham protege Charles B. Atwood, it was originally known as the Columbian Museum, which turned into the Field Museum before moving and leaving the building vacant. A campaign by the Commercial Club of Chicago to open a science museum led to the Beaux Arts beauty being reopened with a new limestone facade and a Art Moderne interior by Alfred P. Shaw. Initially named the Rosenwald Industrial Museum after big donor and Sears president Julian Rosenwald, the historic structure was officially re-christened the Museum of Science and Industry in 1928.
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO
This Beaux-Arts centerpiece of Michigan Avenue designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston was the third location for the institute, and was initially built for the World's Columbian Exposition. The iconic lion statues by Edward Kemeys located at the main entrance, known as "stands in an attitude of defiance," and "on the prowl," are dressed in the uniforms of any Chicago pro team in the playoffs. The museum's east entrance features the reconstructted arch from Louis Sullivan's Chicago Stock Exchange, which was torn down in 1972.
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
The city's largest home for contemporary art opened amid controversy, as the initial list of finalists included no hometown talent, despite the fact that local isoncs such as Stanley Tigerman were semi-finalists. Berlin-based architect Josef Paul Kleihues won the competition and created a cooly modern structure that received mixed reviews. Some said the building, which opened in 1996 at the site of a former armory, was a fitting tribute to the modernism of Mies, with a limestone-and-aluminum facade that played off the nearby Water Tower, while others said the austere structure, with an off-putting, steep set of stairs leading to the main entrance (inspired by the Acropolis), was uncomfortable and cold. "In Chicago," Kleihues said, "it is not necessary that buildings jump and dance. There is no need for any decoration or any loud design."
ADLER PLANETARIUM
Max Adler, a former Sears exec who was impressed with the trendy new planetariums then spreading across Europe, commissioned his cousin, Ernest A. Grunsfeld, Jr., to create the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere on the growing museum campus. Grusfeld's design for the 12-sided structure topped with the iconic dome, which earned him an AIA Gold Medal, features textured stone that plays off the blue colors of the lake and sky, a temple both forward-thinking and ancient. In 1998, the Sky Pavilion designed by Lohan Associates was added to the museum, a skirt of steel and glass that was refered to by some as "the bra" for the way it cupped the original structure.
FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Burnham associate William Peirce Anderson was the brains behind the Neo-Classical masterpiece, whose grand entrance and Ionic columns harken back to one of the eras of antiquity displayed within. Finished in 1921 at a cost of $7 million, the building features 350,000 cubic feet of Georgia marble. Despite numerous historic touches, such as statues of the muses and the 300 million-year-old fossilized limestone lining the floor of Stanley Hall, the Field has stayed up to date, and was recently retrofitted to achieve LEED certification.
PEGGY NOTEBAERT NATURE MUSEUM
Architect Ralph Johnson of Perkins + Will chose a modernist design for the Notebaert to add a touch of the contemporary to a lakefront dominated by classical design ("I wanted to hit the right millennium," he quipped). The two trapezoidal wings in cream-colored stone are meant to recall the sand dunes that used to occupy the site.
THE DUSABLE MUSEUM OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
Once a Chicago Police jail and park district administration building, the DuSable Museum moved into its historic home in 1971 and has undergone a series of renovations, including a Harold Washington wing and the addition of the restored Roundhouse, a stable originally designed by Daniel Burnham.
DRIEHAUS MUSEUM
Home of the Dreihaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts, this Gilded Age showcase features luxurious interiors and pieces set within the former mansion of Samuel M. Nickerson, who made his money selling liquor during the Civil War. Built in 1883 by Edward J. Burling, the opulent three-story residence now houses the work of artisans such as Louis Comfort Tiffany as well as a massive stained glass dome.
CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge designed this municipal cultural center, the nation's first, on land donated by the Grand Army of the Republic, a fratenal organization of Union Civil War vets. Finsihed in 1897 for $2 million, the building features an array of Neoclassical and Italian Renaissance features and the largest Tiffany Dome in the world.
GRAHAM FOUNDATION
This Gold Coast center for architecture and design studies is housed within the Madlener House, a turn-of-the-century Prairie-style home designed for German-American liquor distiller and merchant Albert Fridolin Madlener. The cubic shape created by architect Richard E. Schmidt recalls German neoclassical mixed with the influences of Wright and Sullivan.
POST A COMMENT