Chicago Cultural Center: A Historic Landmark

Living in the city for more than ten years, we've been to the Chicago Cultural Center (CCC) on a number of occasions, and we've never really thought of the building as an architectural landmark. Located across the street from Millenium Park off Michigan Avenue, CCC used to be the central Chicago Public Library and now offers more than 1,000 programs and exhibitions focusing on the performing, visual, and literary arts throughout the year. We decided to join a group tour of the CCC on a Wednesday to find out more about its historic status.

Designed by the Boston architectural firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the building was completed in 1897 at a cost of about $2 million to house the city's central library and the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Museum. We had no idea that the CCC consists of two wings connected by a courtyard and that the wings are capped with two stained-glass domes. While we were in the GAR north wing, our guide indicated that they were in the process of cleaning the Renaissance-patterned north dome and rehabilitating the Tiffany-style south dome. As we stood under the north dome and looked up 40 feet, our guide pointed to the small areas that had already been cleaned, and we saw sunlight peeking through vivid colors of the glass previously obscured by layers of accumulated dirt and grime.

As we discovered, it took four years to build the entire CCC with 3-foot-thick walls, using materials such as marble, bronze, and copper, as a preventive measure after the fire in 1871, which had burned down much of the city. About 1600 artists worked on the hand-inlaid mosaics on the floors, walls, ceilings, and staircases throughout the structure. As we ventured into the old library reading room in the southeast end of the building, we saw scaffolds supporting the crew working on the Tiffany glass dome, purported to be the largest in the world. We imagined ourselves sitting as quiet as mice in this expansive room with nearly 30-foot-high coffered ceilings; intricate mosaics of Favrile glass, stone, and mother of pearl on the walls and ceilings; Tiffany  lamps hanging from the ceiling; and archways revealing the names of ancient philosophers. When we looked up at parts of the sunlit walls leading to the dome, we could see the sparkling effect of crushed glass and fish scales embedded in the carved stone work.

On the northeast corner of the building, we visited the Sidney R. Yates Gallery, which is a replica of an assembly hall in the Doge's Palace in Venice, with heavily ornamented pilasters (flattened columns built into the wall) and coffered ceiling. The Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick also known as an accomplished poet, actor, boxer, and raconteur was showing an exhibition as a "love poem" to the city in this very room. His show "The Wonder—Portraits of a Remembered City" was a revelation to us-- that we need to appreciate not just the artists in Chicago but also the historic architecture that serves as a backdrop to everything that makes up this wonderfully diverse and culturally adept city.

Amy A. Rudberg works as a freelance writer, editor, and researcher in Chicago. She is currently working on writing and illustrating children's books.

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