Architecture Tours, Chicago

Architecture Tours, Chicago

Chicago’s distinct cityscape of elegantly soaring skyscrapers is world famous. Architecture tours of Chicago take you through the design and development of the city’s iconic landmarks and their salient features.

The architectural sophistication of Chicago can largely be attributed to the aftermath of the devastating Great Chicago Fire of 1871, from the ashes of which rose the world’s first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building (1885), and several other historic buildings. Learn the stories behind the early skyscrapers, such as the Moorish Revival Rookery Building (1888) with Frank Lloyd Wright interiors, the Richardsonian Romanesque Auditorium Theater (1889) which had leading-edge engineering and acoustics, and the Marquette Building (1895) which exemplifies the Chicago School.

The decadent lifestyle of the Roaring ‘20s gave rise to the slew of stylized Art Deco buildings, prominent among which were the Carbide & Carbon Building (1929, now Hard Rock Hotel) which has 24k gold-leaf work on its green terracotta façade, Chicago Motor Club Building (1929), Daily News Building (1929, now Riverside Plaza), Chicago Board of Trade Building (1930), One LaSalle Street Building (1930), and Field Building (1934, now Bank of America). All except the CMCB are in the downtown Loop, which is home to other icons such as the Sears Tower or Willis Tower, Trump International, the Standard Oil Building now known as Aon Centre, the post-modern 311 South Wacker Drive and Harold Washington Library, Franklin Center, Inland Steel Building, and the neo-classical City Hall.

Post World War II buildings show the impact of technological and zoning changes, exemplified in the stainless steel cladding on the Inland Steel Building (1958). Newer buildings were built to Mies van der Rohe’s Modern principles, followed by whimsical post-Modern designs. Marking the era are the Crain Communications Building (1984), 190 S. LaSalle (1987), Harold Washington Library (1991), and James Thompson Center (1995). Continuing the tradition are contemporary buildings such as One South Dearborn (2005), Blue Cross-Blue Shield (1997) and the Art Institute's Modern Wing (2009).

Other buildings of notable architecture in Chicago include John Hancock Centre, the neo-Gothic Tribune Tower, and Wrigley Building on the Magnificent Mile, as well as the classicist Baha’i temple in the far north.