When it comes to designing buildings, form may follow function, but that doesn’t mean function has to be without form. Geoffrey Baer joins us with the story of the O’Brien Water Reclamation Plant and other ornamented utility buildings. 

Aldermen on Tuesday advanced a scaled-back effort to test whether Chicago’s affordable housing crisis could be eased by permitting basement, attic and coach house dwellings in five areas of the city.

A rancorous debate that stretched for more than 18 months ended Tuesday with a unanimous vote of the City Council’s Zoning Committee to reject an effort to landmark more than 900 buildings and murals in Pilsen.

The former Woodlawn home of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, is now in the hands of the nonprofit Blacks in Green. Founder Naomi Davis shares the group’s vision for the historic site.

Chicago gets a lot of attention for its soaring skyscrapers and ornate downtown buildings, but there’s more to Chicago architecture than what’s in the Loop. 

A tucked-away street on the city's South Side is a time capsule from the days before the neighborhood was even part of Chicago. Geoffrey Baer explains.

Open House Chicago will now run through Nov. 1, with additional online programming to be made available during the seven-day extension.

Geoffrey Baer takes a look at the redesigned event in the latest Ask Geoffrey.

Geoffrey Baer traces the half-century story that cost at least one preservationist his life, in this week’s Ask Geoffrey.

After sitting empty for nearly two decades, the old Cook County Hospital building has been given a new life. Leaders are touting the $140 million project as a sign of hope amid an economic downturn.

Chicago architect Joel Berman is using his love of design to teach the next generation of artists in a new virtual drawing class. We recently joined the students to learn more.

The revamped Open House Chicago features walking and biking trails and celeb-led virtual tours of the architecture and history of more than 20 city neighborhoods. 

Two famous Germans take up permanent residence in Chicago, only to witness the evolution of a West Side neighborhood. Geoffrey Baer goes long on two enduring Humboldt Park statues.

The Chicago Historic Resource Survey, completed in 1995, has been an invaluable tool for preservationists. But it’s beginning to show its age, and the lack of sites of significance to the Black and Latino communities is notable.

The Chicago Commission on Landmarks unanimously approved preliminary landmark status for Emmett Till’s former home, calling the red brick two-flat a “modest home that is monumentally important.”

An iconic Chicago building could soon be facing an identity crisis. Geoffrey Baer has the backstory of a prominent – and sometimes underrated – member of Chicago’s skyline.