Chicago, Illinois - Attractions

See

Museums

Chicago's set of museums and cultural institutions are among the best in the world. Three of them are located within a short walk of each other in the Chicago/Near South|Near South, on what is known as the museum campus, in a beautiful spot along the lake: the Adler Planetarium, with all sorts of cool hands-on space exhibits and astronomy shows; the Field Museum, which features "Sue," the giant Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, and a plethora of Egyptian treasures; and the Shedd Aquarium, with dolphins, whales, sharks, and the best collection of marine life east of California. A short distance away, on the Chicago/South Chicago Shore|South Chicago Shore, is the most fun of them all, the Museum of Science and Industry — or, as generations of Chicago-area grammar school students know it, the best field trip ever.

In the Chicago/Loop|Loop, the Art Institute of Chicago has a handful of iconic household names among an unrivaled collection of Impressionism, modern and classical art, and tons of historical artifacts. And in Chicago/Lincoln Park-Old Town|Lincoln Park, a short trip from the Loop, the cheerful (and free) Lincoln Park Zoo welcomes visitors every day of the week, with highlights including the brand-new Great Ape House.

Those are the most famous ones, but Chicago has some knockout small museums scattered throughout the city like the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen and the Museum of Photography in the Loop. The University of Chicago, in Chicago/South Chicago Shore|Hyde Park, has several cool (and free) museums that are open to all visitors.

Discount packages like the CityPass [1] and the Go Chicago Card [2] can be purchased before you arrive in town. They cover admission to some museums and other tourist attractions, allowing you to cut to the front of lines, and may include discounts for restaurants and shopping.

Itineraries

• Along the Magnificent Mile — one day and night in Chicago, with skyscrapers, shopping, food, parks, and amazing views of the city from high and low.
• Loop Art Tour — a 2-4 hour walking tour of downtown Chicago's magnificent collection of modern sculpture.

Architecture

From the sternly classical to the space-age, from the Gothic to the coolly modern, Chicago is a place with an embarrassment of architectural riches, where the past meets the future. Modern architecture was born here. Frank Lloyd Wright fans will swoon to see his earliest buildings in Chicago, where he began his professional career and established the Prairie School architectural style, with numerous homes in Chicago/South Chicago Shore|Hyde Park, Oak Park, and Chicago/Rogers Park|Rogers Park — over 100 buildings in the Chicago metropolitan area! He learned his craft at the foot of the lieber meister, Louis Sullivan, whose ornate, awe-inspiring designs were once the jewels of the Chicago/Loop|Loop, and whose few surviving buildings (Auditorium Theater, Carson Pirie Scott Building, one in the Chicago/Wicker Park|Ukrainian Village) still stand apart.

The 1871 Chicago Fire forced the city to rebuild. The ingenuity and ambition of Sullivan, his teacher William Le Baron Jenney (Manhattan Building), and contemporaries like Burnham & Root (Monadnock, Rookery) and Holabird & Roche/Root (Chicago Board of Trade) made Chicago the definitive city of their era. The world's first skyscrapers were built in the Chicago/Loop|Loop as those architects received ever more demanding commissions. Later, Mies van der Rohe would adapt Sullivan's ethos with landmark buildings in Chicago/Bronzeville|Bronzeville (Illinois Institute of Technology) and the Chicago/Loop|Loop (Chicago Federal Center). Unfortunately, Chicago's world-class architectural heritage is almost evenly matched by the world-class recklessness with which the city has treated it, and the list is long of masterpieces that have been needlessly demolished for bland new structures.

Architectural tours cover the landmarks on foot and by popular river boat tours, or by just standing awestruck on a downtown bridge over the Chicago River; see individual district articles for details. For a tour on the cheap, the short trip around the elevated Loop train circuit (Brown/Purple Lines) may be worth every penny of the $2 fare.

Chicago is also the birthplace of the skyscraper. It was here that steel-frame construction was invented, allowing buildings to rise above the limits of load-bearing walls. Naturally, competition with New York was fierce, but in the end, Chicago built them taller. Chicago boasts three out of America's tallest five buildings: the Chicago/Loop#See|Sears Tower (1st), the Aon Center (3rd), and the Chicago/Near North#See|John Hancock Center (4th). For years, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world, but it's since lost the title by most measurements. Various developers insist they're bringing the title back. Until they do, though, the Sears Tower will have to settle for being the tallest building in North America, although the Hancock is not much shorter, is better located for tourists, has a better view, and is quite frankly better-looking.