The Arts Club of Chicago is both a private club and an exhibition space open to the public. The 1997 building, designed by Vinci/Hamp Architects, Inc., salvaged this Mies van der Rohe staircase from the Club’s previous headquarters.
Open House Chicago is an annual event sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, offering free access to over 200 buildings across the city, many of which are not normally open to the public. I’d been looking forward to the event for months, and over the weekend of October 14-15 I squeezed in as many visits as I could, in the process getting drenched in a torrential rainstorm on Saturday. I saw only a fraction of what was available, mostly in the Loop and near north / Gold Coast area. Six solid hours on my feet pretty much wore me out, but my camera and I managed to capture some decent interior views.
Fortunately, I’d seen a few of the open spaces before, such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and his home and studio. 200+ buildings, though, is simply too much of a good thing, and I’m now looking forward to next year’s edition of the Open House.
Some of the highlights included visits to architectural firms such as Holabird & Root, successor firm to the designers of many iconic Chicago buildings, and Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, whose offices were filled with scale models of skyscrapers, including the firm’s 1-km tall Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Favorite interiors included the sumptuous Red Lacquer Room in the Palmer House Hotel, with its long red-draped banquet table set with the original 1879 Haviland dinner service for the farewell banquet for Ulysses S. Grant. I also loved the calm, expansive space of the 8th-floor library of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, with its stunning view of the lakefront, Grant Park, the Museum Campus, and downtown skyscrapers.
Nostalgic visits included my first view of the interior of the H.H. Richardson Glessner House, a house I’d admired from the exterior many times. I’d long admired the Gothic steeple atop the Chicago Temple (First United Methodist Church) downtown, but I made my first (and last) ascent to the Sky Chapel, involving an elevator ride to the 22nd floor and then climbing up 172 stairs to the small chapel. It brought back memories of days when I could easily climb structures such as the dome of St. Peter’s.
Some of my edited pictures are posted here; you can also view Open House Chicago Flickr album by clicking here.
The crystalline glass façade of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership (Krueck + Sexton, 2007), is a striking feature of this building, which features open interior spaces for study with panoramic views of the downtown Chicago lakefront.
The art deco 1929 Carbine and Carbon Building has been re-purposed as the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago. Original lobby details can still be admired.
Another inviting interior space for reading and contemplation is the Poetry Foundation (John Ronan Architects, 2011), on the near north side.
The Red Lacquer Room is one of the stunning function rooms in the 1927 Palmer House Hotel.
On Nov. 13, 1879, the Palmer House was the scene of a grand banquet in honor of General Grant, who had just returned from his world tour. On display in the Red Lacquer Room were place settings from the original Haviland Limoges china service used for the dinner, from the hotel’s collection.
The International Museum of Surgical Science, formerly the Eleanor Robinson Countiss Home, faces Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan. Period photographs show the former appearance of the rooms.
The offices of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture feature scale models of some of the world’s tallest buildings, as well as stunning top-floor outdoor terraces.
The 1887 Glessner House is the only remaining building in the city of Chicago designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson.
View my complete set of photos from Open House Chicago in my Flickr album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/81954544@N00/albums/72157687108662761
