Have you ever wanted to peek inside the Board of Trade’s basement vault? Or step into Chicago’s only castle? Or explore the Willis Tower’s new outdoor terrace?
Those sites are among 150 architectural rarities open to the public, for free, at this year’s Open House Chicago this Saturday and Sunday.
“Who doesn’t like to go into places you normally can’t? It fulfills something important in everybody,” said Hallie Rosen, Chicago Architecture Center’s director of program operations.
Although the total is down from 350 sites in 2019, this year marks an increase from 2020, when visitors were encouraged to view sites from the outside during the pandemic, and last year, when there was closer to 100 sites.
This year’s selection of sites was made with a focus on Chicago’s neighborhoods, according to Rosen, who led the selection with input from community partners and architects.
This year, there are sites in 20 Chicago neighborhoods. Hermosa and Chatham are included for the first time. Seventeen sites are new this year.
“Spend the morning in Bronzeville and really get to know the neighborhood,” Rosen said. Open House aims to showcase the “amazing community work going on,” she said.
Other recommendations are available on the Chicago Architecture Center’s new app, which also offers self-guided tours and restaurant tips.
Sites are listed at OpenHouseChicago.org.
Rosen recommends the mural tour in Pilsen. “This whole neighborhood is filled with these amazing artworks,” she said.
And in North Lawndale, there’s the Stone Temple Baptist Church, which will feature the inaugural Chicago Design Sukkah Festival and showcase the neighborhood’s Jewish roots.
North Lawndale’s historic Central Park Theater, 3535 W. Roosevelt Road, is usually closed to the public but is undergoing a renovation to make it a community hub. The theater opened in 1917 and seats 1,700 people.
The Avondale neighborhood has four new sites, including the Avondale Bowl, ComEd’s facility on California Avenue, and two breweries: Maplewood Brewing and Ravinia Brewing.
Downtown, visit a vacant office floor of “Big Red” at 333 S. Wabash Ave. with views of the skyline. Or step onto the 49th floor of BMO Tower at 320 S. Canal St., built on the site of Union Station’s former parking garage.
Sites are also open in suburban Oak Park, home of Frank Lloyd Wright, and Evanston, which has a self-guided tour of the north suburb’s cultural sites. “It really shows you the impact of the African American community in Evanston,” Rosen said.
For the less architecturally savvy, this year’s tours promise to provide more context, both in signs and through the app and on-site QR codes. That lesson was learned during the first two years of the pandemic when the Open House was virtual in 2020 and guided tours were reduced to maintain social distancing in 2021.
Open House Chicago used to attract 100,000 weekend visitors before the pandemic but that dropped to around 40,000 in 2021, Rosen said.
The event relies on about 1,500 volunteers working four-hour shifts. One volunteer makes yearly visits to Chicago from Florida since coming to the city eight years ago and falling in love with the architecture, Rosen said.
“You’d think she’s a Chicago native, but she isn’t,” Rosen said. “She heard about Chicago and its architecture, and her first time here was during Open House Chicago weekend. And now she comes back all the time.”
