Architecture

In the new book Fire and Clay, Brick of Chicago's Will Quam tracks the history of architecture through the endlessly varied brick.

Judging from the restaurant designs up for recognition at Chicago's local Jean Banchet Awards, what we all seem to need right now is aspirational escape.

Robert A.M. Stern has died at the age of 86. Geoffrey Baer met and interviewed him for a documentary about his life and work, and remembers the influential architect here.

Open House Chicago takes place this year on October 18 and 19, with more than 200 sites across the city open to explore. We chose some highlights. 

Chicago is known for its influential skyscrapers, but a new book full of illustrations argues that its homes are equally worth noticing and celebrating. 

Léon Krier, an influential architect and theorist who rejected modernism in favor of classical architecture and traditional urban layouts, has died. Geoffrey Baer interviewed him several times. 

A long sequence in the fourth season of the popular show spotlights the details in Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Oak Park, as well as two other nearby houses by the legendary architect. 

From its manually operated elevators to the master instrument builders inside, the Fine Arts Building holds numerous distinctions, which are explored in a new book. 

From the little-known architect to the over 375,000 terra cotta pieces on the facade, the pioneering radio stations and extraordinary designers that worked there, The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon tells the stories of one of Chicago's most famous buildings. 

The federal government recently included two of the Mies van der Rohe-designed buildings in Federal Center, with its iconic Calder sculpture, in a list of properties to sell.

More than 170 sites across Chicago are opening their doors this weekend during Open House Chicago. We've got some highlights, including some places typically not open to the public.

"Welcome to Tribuneville" by Klaus is a retro-futuristic cityscape consisting of unbuilt entries to the 1922 competition for a Tribune Tower design. The animated cartoon is on display at 150 Media Stream inside 150 N. Riverside. 

Many of Chicago's cemeteries are surprisingly beautiful and pastoral, in addition to being full of intriguing stories, sculptures, and monuments along with the prominent Chicagoans buried in them.

Ever since the opening of the Central Library, now the Cultural Center, in 1897, the Chicago area has built some remarkable libraries, as Geoffrey Baer explores.