Arts & Entertainment
Open House Chicago Offers Behind-the-Scenes Access to Iconic Buildings. Here’s What You Can Expect
An upcoming architecture festival will give residents a behind-the-scenes look at buildings across the city that are normally not open to the public.
Open House Chicago returns this weekend with more than 200 sites spanning more than 30 neighborhoods.
The weekend-long event is free to attend and no advance registration is required. Visitors can choose their sites and just show up during listed open house hours.
Adam Rubin, senior director of public engagement at the Chicago Architecture Center, joined “Chicago Tonight” to give a preview of this year’s festival.
“The more that we can get out there with other Chicagoans doing things together and in person, the stronger our city is gonna be and the more connected people are gonna feel to their city,” Rubin said. “They’re gonna feel more civically engaged, they’re gonna feel that they can make a change in how their city works.”
New Sites on This Year’s Lineup
Each year brings both new sites and sites that return to the lineup after taking a break, which makes the festival dynamic, according to Rubin. This year’s festival has at least 20 new sites including:
- Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, 4339 S. Lake Park Ave. (Kenwood)
“This is the house where the blues musician Muddy Waters lived for a number of years,” Rubin said. “It has now been restored by his great-granddaughter who was able to buy the house several years ago and is turning it into a museum about her great-grandfather’s legacy, so visitors for Open House weekend are going to be able to see the house museum before it’s completely finished.”
- Woman’s Athletic Club, 626 N. Michigan Ave. (Near North Side)
“This is an exclusive, members-only club that’s right on Mag Mile,” Rubin said. “Probably people have walked past it thousands of times and didn’t know it was there. It’s just a really incredible interior with art deco interior design and other flourishes from the early 20th century that really make this a unique interior space that you’re not going to find in too many other places in the city. It’s very well taken care of and very well preserved.”
Highly Anticipated: Uptown Theatre
The Uptown Theatre is a highly anticipated site that was added to this year’s lineup. It will be the first time the theater is open to a public this large since it closed in 1981, according to Rubin. The theater speaks to the height of a pre-WWII jazz era, when Uptown was viewed as the next preeminent entertainment district outside of downtown, Rubin said.
Organizers are expecting high visitor traffic at the 101-year-old theater.
“We want people to go and really explore everything,” Rubin said. “The Uptown is great, but it’s a drop in the bucket of a very large festival.”
The Uptown is one of three historic theaters included in this year’s festival that communities want to see revitalized. Similar theaters include:
- Avalon Regal Theater, 1645 E. 79th St. (South Shore)
- Central Park Theater, 3535 W. Roosevelt Road (North Lawndale)
New This Year: ‘Built on Belief’ in Woodlawn
Three sites in Woodlawn will have special site-specific exhibitions and programs for the festival. They are:
- Narrow Bridge Arts Club, 6028 S. Champlain Ave.
- First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, 6400 S. Kimbark Ave.
- Oak Woods Cemetery, 1035 E. 67th St.
The “Built on Belief” program aims to explore intersections of architecture, religion and spirituality. Each location tells a story of how the South Side neighborhood has been shaped by faith communities over generations, Rubin said.
Skyscraper Sites
WTTW’s “Chicago Stories: Skyscrapers” premieres at 8 p.m. Friday. In light of the new episode, Rubin shared some skyscrapers featured on this year’s lineup for Open House Chicago.
- Monadnock Building, 53 W. Jackson Blvd.
- 150 North Riverside, 150 N. Riverside Plaza
- Pittsfield Building, 55 E. Washington St.
“These tall buildings really tell the story of Chicago over time,” Rubin said. “We’ve got a number of skyscrapers from different eras that are in the festival, and a lot of different ways of understanding their context and how they tell their own story.”
Tips for Participants
The Open House Chicago website includes information that helps participants build their itinerary. People can look up details like history, photos, ADA information, the visitor experience, special timed events, whether photography is allowed, family-friendly sites and more.
Rubin recommends participants take a look at which sites are open both days, which sites are open Saturday only, Sunday only or have limited hours. While no registration is required, for some sites Rubin recommends getting there with plenty of time.
“The festival works as a sort of choose-your-own adventure, where you’re going to be seeing a different festival than the thousands of other people who are doing Open House,” Rubin said. “It all depends on how you put your weekend together and what places you want to prioritize.”
Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]
WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.
