Open House Chicago
Open House Chicago
This weekend marks the return of Open House Chicago, an annual event celebrating the city’s architectural and cultural attractions that I’ve been attending or working regularly since it debuted ten years ago. It’s a great chance to explore different neighborhoods as well as get inside buildings you wouldn’t normally see in person, like exclusive private clubs or that time I saw the vintage car collection owned by the late philanthropist Richard Driehaus in 2017. OHC was always something I looked forward to every year. I don’t know if it’s because I’m still in pandemic mode or because it seems a bit scaled back but I just don’t feel the same excitement I usually do (it also doesn’t help that I have to work this Saturday, missing one of the days). However I thought I’d relive some of the great places I saw over the last decade by sharing my five favorite OHC sites, in no particular order, plus a bonus spot that no longer exists.
Carl Street Studios
Let’s start with the most recent location I visited back in 2019 before COVID-19 changed the world. Because I work in the Gold Coast I have walked down the Burton Place cul-de-sac in Old Town more times than I count, where you’ll find an artists’ enclave dating back to the 1920s & 30s. OHC attendees only got to see the exterior of Carl Street Studios, the project associated with Edgar Miller and Sol Kogen, but that alone was worth the wait. It’s such a one-of-a-kind place!
Miller worked in over 30 different mediums, working as an architect, sculptor, woodcarver, painter, and stained-glass designer. But he’s best known for using these talents in transforming a bunch of Victorian homes with whatever he could find, usually recycled materials scavenged from construction sites or the old Maxwell Street Market. Miller’s apartment complex, divided into sixteen different studios, has the most unbelievable outdoor space I have ever seen in person. As described on the OHC website, the communal exterior is “a labyrinth of enchanting and eclectic courtyards, nooks and spaces adorned with stained glass windows, mosaics, wood carvings, ceramic sculptures and other art installations.” Everywhere you look is some amazing artistic detail, whether it’s the mosaic tiles of the fish pond or the carvings in the various front doors. I couldn’t get enough of Carl Street and of course took way too many photos. I remember this interesting tidbit: there is heat directly underneath all the mosaic floors in the courtyard, so the snow melts immediately. How cool is that?
Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church
This next OHC site sticks out in my mind not just because I’m a fan of architect Dankmar Adler but because of how memorable the tour was during my visit. The church members were so enthusiastic and proud to share their beautiful building with the public that you couldn’t help but feel the same way. I learned such interesting information from them and greatly appreciated how they took us behind-the-scenes to show the structure’s inner-workings.
Designed a year before Adler’s death in 1900, the building originally housed the Isaiah Temple synagogue before it was sold to this black congregation exactly a hundred years ago. Although Adler & Sullivan broke up in 1895, they continued to assist or contribute to each other’s projects. I noticed Sullivanesque ornamentation throughout the interior, all the evidence I needed to know how much these former partners could not stay out of each other’s lives (Sullivan was devastated when Adler died and I don’t think he or his career ever truly recovered).
Another interesting historical tidbit is that gospel music was popularized in this church with Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin, Dinah Washington, and even Bo Diddley, all performing with the church choir at various times. Adler was known as an acoustical genius so I can just imagine what it’s like to hear music in this space. I’d love to go back one day just for that reason.
St. Ignatius College Prep
I know it was in the works for a long time to get this building on OHC back in 2019, which coincided with the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding. I loved seeing the historic Brunswick Room (although it seemed rather quick to get any decent photos) and Father Damen’s office but the highlight for me was the Chicago gallery, a two-story space of architectural artifacts in the Driehaus building. It’s basically my dream room. Many of the items are from the personal collection of the late philanthropist Richard Driehaus, who I mentioned earlier - he loved historic architecture and was an alum of the school. Even though he was a billionaire, Driehaus believed in the power of good architecture in that “everyone deserves to live in, to grow up around, beauty.” There is plenty of Adler & Sullivan, Burnham & Root, and other Prairie School architects found throughout the collection. I couldn’t imagine seeing this gallery all the time as a student or faculty member.
Murphy/Jahn Architects
Over the last decade I have visited quite a few architectural firms during OHC, like Goettsch Partners and Stantec in the historic Railway Exchange Building or Thornton Tomasetti and Perkins + Will atop Mies van der Rohe’s 330 North Wabash (formerly IBM Plaza). But my 2012 visit to the late Helmut Jahn’s office was quite a treat (although my friends kept complaining the whole day and have never returned to this annual event). Completed between 1926-27, the Jewelers Building at the corner of Wacker and Wabash was originally constructed to attract tenants of the jewelers trade. But the architect probably became its most occupant, moving here in the 1980s and using the 40th-floor cupola - accessible by an ornate birdcage elevator - as a conference room and presentation space. It’s a shame the day was so cold and rainy but I can’t complain, the views from the top were simply amazing. And with his recent death, I appreciated the opportunity of seeing Jahn’s office in person.
Florsheim Mansion
Last but not least, I have to give a shout out to the Florsheim Mansion, featured on OHC just one time back in 2016. Considering I’ve been regularly passing by this 1938 Art Moderne design by Andrew Rebori for over a decade I was beyond excited to finally get inside it - a pair of townhouses on a narrow city lot with a courtyard in between - living quarters in the front and a studio in the back.
The best part was seeing the narrow “bridge kitchen” added by Lillian Florsheim’s son-in-law, architect Bertrand Goldberg. Created between 1949-52, the streamlined galley space connects the brick and glass block home with the rear artists studio and survives in original condition. The kitchen is suspended from metal rods held in tension and enclosed with a fiberglass screen. It is meant to mimic the sleek lines of vintage railroad cars. The building sold this past July for $1.25 million.
Honorable Mention: Cape Cod Restaurant
Maybe because it’s now closed, but I’m grateful I got to see this historic restaurant located inside the Drake Hotel, an iconic building designed by Marshall & Fox in 1920. One of the city’s oldest fine-dining spots, the Cape Cod was in business for 83 years before the place shut its doors at the end of 2016, just a year after I saw it during OHC. Its menu and look was inspired by the hotel’s architect, Benjamin Marshall, who was an avid fisherman. A literal time capsule with few change since the restaurant first opened in 1933, the place took you back to another era. It’s sad that recent renovations have destroyed all that wonderful history. How cool it must have been to sit at the bar and have a drink where Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio carved their initials shortly after getting married in 1954. Now like most of Chicago, the restaurant lives on only in peoples’ memories.
