Make time for openhousechicago

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Updated: October 12, 2011 7:06PM

Have you ever seen a beautiful old mansion and wondered what it looks like inside or maybe wished you could see the view from the rooftop garden of one of Chicago’s most exclusive residential buildings?

Ever want to get a glimpse behind the scenes at a successful brewery, pizza manufacturer, theater or even funeral home? Curious to see state-of-the-art examples of green architecture?

You can do all these and more at the inaugural openhousechicago, a free Chicago Architecture Foundation event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. More than 100 sites are included, most offering unique access to places not typically open to the public.

Many will offer tours, some will have talks about the historic significance of or happenings at the site, and others will host artists or artistic performances.

Historic mansions that will open their opulent doors include the Swift Mansion, the former home of the meat-packing giant and current home of the Inner City Youth Foundation.

Lake Point Tower will welcome visitors to its 2-acre rooftop garden, complete with a lagoon and waterfall. Rock Bottom Brewery will offer samples, plus a tour, and Home Run Inn will offer tours of its frozen-pizza operation.

The Lookingglass Theatre, in the former pumping station by Chicago’s famous Water Tower, is one of the arts venues offering tours. You can even tour the embalming room in a South
Side funeral home.

The sites are grouped into five geographic areas, each with a hub site offering event details and free trolley pickup. The trolley will stop at openhousechicago sites in that vicinity, allowing visitors to hop on and off. The trolleys also will stop at a local public transit center for access to the other hubs. The hubs are in the Loop, Bronzeville, Garfield Park, Little Village and Rogers Park neighborhoods.

Openhousechicago also has a Green Trail with 17 sites throughout the city showcasing an array of cutting-edge green architecture and technologies, plus energy-efficient and sustainable products for the home.

Thirty-four sites are designated as “family friendly” and include the Education Center at the new modern wing of The Art Institute, watching stone-carving artisans at work, visiting a firehouse and several art centers.

Openhousechicago also has an array of programs, including an historic pub crawl, screenings of student-made short films, a musical performance sonically composed for and performed on the top floor of the original Sears Tower, art studio open houses, cumbia dance lessons, and a chance to go into a recording studio to record a poem of your own to be kept in the digital archives of the Poetry Foundation.

Visit www.openhousechicago.org to access the excellent event website. You can get background information and unique access details for each site.

I suggest you create a personal itinerary as you explore the site, with which you can easily note, retrieve and map sites of interest.

If you’ve taken any of the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s walking, bus or boat tours, you know how interesting and informative they are, even to those who might not be specifically interested in architecture.

The tours also touch on history, culture and interesting bits of local color.  

Openhousechicago will be an impressive addition to the extensive offerings by the Chicago Architecture Foundation.