Each October the Chicago Architecture Foundation hosts Open House Chicago and this weekend was it! Saturday and Sunday 150 building’s that aren’t normally open to the public allow us all in their doors to view some of this city’s most iconic and interesting pieces of architecture.
Unfortunately, I was only able to get out to a few spots on Saturday. I had a good list of building’s I wanted to visit but the lines were very long and the weather was not-at-all cooperative to make it photographically worthwhile to deal with them. I’m embarrassed to admit I only made it into three buildings. Next year I’m absolutely going to get the membership and get to at least two of the building’s known for their insanely long lines, but amazing views, or I may just head to a different neighborhood outside of the downtown list. We will see.
But here are a handful of images from this Saturday…
The first stop was Site Design Group at 888 S. Michigan Ave. Definitely some nice views of the southern end of Grant Park and Museum Campus.
Then we made an unplanned stop at RTKL Associates Inc. at 200 S. Michigan Ave. It was a very cool space but the glare on the windows from the gloomy skies outside and the lights inside made it next to impossible to get any good images. However, really great views from here.
We then headed to 190 S. LaSalle which houses a law library on the 40th floor. Amazing on it’s own, but it also offers spectacular views with their floor-to-ceiling windows. The southern view, in particular, is fantastic. I’m not sure there’s a better birds-eye-view of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Ceres statue that graces the top of that building. The western views of the Sears Tower aren’t bad either.



From here the plan was to go to the Jeweler’s Building at 35 E Wacker but it was raining fairly hard by then and the line was over an hour long. The line at the Sky-Line Club wasn’t much better. Such a bummer because these two were at the top of my list of must-see building’s for the day. Next year the membership will come in handy for these two. By this point I was just over the miserable weather and long lines, so I bailed:(
However, one more thing caught my eye before heading to lunch, a newly completed building neighboring the Burberry store (which I love! such fun to photograph).

I was lucky enough to run into a few photographer friends while out Saturday so that on it’s own made the day worthwhile. But, here’s to hoping for better weather next year and to those of you who were able to get out Sunday with the less gloomy atmosphere. Would love to see your favorite shots from the weekend and any must-see locations I might be able to sneak in throughout the year or that I should plan for next year!
 
If you’d like to see the images from last year, click here.
And for OHC2012 (which was also the Worldwide Kelby Photowalk weekend), click here.