Location: Downtown / The Loop
Top Things to do in Downtown / The Loop
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Top 10 Architectural Buildings in Downtown / The Loop, Illinois (IL)
The windy city is a cornucopia of modern art, fine dining, cutting edge comedy, and die-hard sports fans. Snap a photo of your reflection in the silver Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park before heading to Grant Park to get hit with the refreshing spray of Buckingham Fountain. There are dozens of museums and theater companies in Chicago, so a cultural experience is never hard to find. You’re sure to laugh your head off at the Second City Theater, the professional launch pad of many famous comedians.
Restaurants in Chicago
1. Skydeck Chicago - Willis Tower
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 17,474 reviews
No trip to Chicago is complete without a visit to the top of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and The Ledge at Skydeck Chicago! Treat yourself to a "one stop Chicago" experience on your journey to the 103rd floor. Enjoy 360-degree views spanning up to 50 miles and 4 states and our most spectacular view - 1,353 feet straight down! "Dare to Stand Out" on The Ledge - glass balconies extending 4.3 Feet outside the building provide a thrilling, once in a lifetime experience!
Reviewed By manjushap1907 - Visakhapatnam, India
A must visit place when u visit Chicago.. A unique experience when you stand in the glass box and have unparalleled views of Chicago city.. Advise don’t visit this place during long weekends as the waiting time is too long and you cannot have a good experience due to the rush of the crowds.. You are given 1-2mins to just take pics and you cannot really enjoy the experience..
2. Chicago Cultural Center
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2,992 reviews
The Chicago Cultural Center is the nation's first free municipal cultural center and one of the most visited attractions in Chicago. The stunning landmark building, opened in 1897 as the city's first public library, is home to two magnificent stained-glass domes, and annually presents hundreds of free cultural exhibits and performances. Admission is free.
Reviewed By pookala - Philadelphia, United States
Aside from being a beautiful building filled with finely executed mosaic work, a lovely marble staircase and an always interesting array of changing exhibits; the Cultural Center also has a free weekly recital under the largest Tiffany glass dome in the world. The 45 minute Wednesday concerts take place in the Preston Bradley Hall at 12:15 pm. Be sure to get there early (20-30 minutes) if you want to sit up front. The space fills up quickly. If you have nothing planned afterwards go to the Randolph St entrance after the concert and go on a tour of the building. Space is limited for this tour and they start at 1:15 pm daily. Check out their calendar of events before planning your Chicago itinerary to take advantage of this excellent cultural institution.
3. Art on theMART
4. Auditorium Building
5. Sullivan Center
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 27 reviews
A unique rounded entrance marks one of the city's true architectural gems, the last major structure designed by famed architect Louis Sullivan.
Reviewed By Rumples - Tucson, United States
We stopped at this 1899 building during a Chicago Architecture Foundation walking tour, and, as an architecture buff, I was blown away by the structure's elaborate cast-iron ornamentation. It surrounds the large display windows of the lower two floors and is especially elegant at the entrance located at the corner of South State and East Madison streets. The design incorporates plant and geometric shapes in a delicate, precise pattern. I took an even closer look at the work inside the entrance before crossing the street for a better overall view of the effect. From there I could see how much the bottom levels differ from the rest of the 12 stories. The plain upper floors of the commercial building display a terra cotta facade with many windows made possible because of steel-frame construction. For decades, the structure was known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, after the department store housed there for decades. It moved out in 2007 and now bears the name of the Sullivan Center, after the famous architect responsible for the building's original design. A City Target currently occupies the first two floors.
6. Monadnock Building
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 23 reviews
The two-building block represents old-style masonry and new-fangled steel framing.
Reviewed By MooreReviews - Baltimore, United States
We heard about this building on a tour. Loved to hear the history of. Tallest fully brick sky scraper, and so heavy they have to reinforced the foundation every year to prevent it from sinking. Fascinating architecture in this city.
7. Chicago Board of Trade Building
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 118 reviews
An art deco masterpiece, this is the home of many of the city's financial movers and shakers.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
Remember the frenzied trading operations scene in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the bustling streetscape in the La Salle Street canyon in the movie The Untouchables? It all had to do with the Chicago Board of Trade Building, the primary trading venue for the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a popular sightseeing attraction and location for filming motion pictures. Located at 141 West Jackson Boulevard, at the south end of La Salle Street, in a veritable canyon surrounded by other iconic buildings, the CBOT is known for its art deco architecture, sculptures, large-scale stone carvings and large trading floors. It is clad in gray Indiana limestone and topped with a copper pyramid roof and features black and white marble interiors, an open three-story lobby that once housed the world's largest light fixture and 12 Otis elevators. Built in 1929-1930, the 45-story, 605-foot-tall structure presides over Chicago's financial district. It was the city's tallest building from 1930 to 1965. Notable sculptures include John H. Storrs' aluminum, three-story art deco statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain, which caps the building and is a nod to the exchange's heritage as a commodities market, and John W. Norton's three-story mural of Ceres, which is displayed in the atrium. Today, in the wake of two extensive expansion projects in 1980 and 1997, the trading floors, including the corn pit, the wheat pit and the soybean pit, now encompass 115,150 square feet. In addition to the CBOT and the Mercantile Exchange, the three-building complex is occupied by other financial and trading concerns, the Ceres cafe on the first floor in the lobby, and other businesses such as banking, travel, insurance, beauty, health, commodities speculators and the U.S. Futures Exchange. The CBOT building was named a Chicago Landmark in 1977 and designated as a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
8. 333 West Wacker Drive
9. Fine Arts Building
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 35 reviews
A historic building that houses two theaters, several offices, shops and music studios.
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
The 10-story Fine Arts Building, also known as the Studebaker Building, houses artists' lofts, art galleries, theatre, dance and recording studios, interior and web design firms, musical instrument makers and other businesses associated with the arts. It also is home to the Studebaker Theatre and the Artists Cafe and offices of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Jazz Institute of Chicago, the Grant Park Conservancy, the World Federalist Associations and the Chicago Youth Symphony. Located at 410 South Michigan Avenue, across the street from Grant Park in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District, the Fine Arts Building was constructed in 1894-1895 and extensively remodeled in 1898 when the top three floors were added. The two granite columns at the main entrance, each three feet eight inches in diameter and 12 feet 10 inches tall were said to be the largest polished monolithic shafts in the country. The interior features Art Nouveau motifs and murals by artists such as Martha Susan Baker, Frederic Clay Bartlett, Olivet Dennett Grover, Frank Xavier Leyendecker and Bertha Sophia Menzler-Peyton and date from the 1898 renovation. In 1931, Paul Whiteman and his orchestra gave the first public performance of Grand Canyon Suite at the Studebaker Theatre. Since 2016, it has served as a live theater with a 740 seating capacity. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1978.
10. Reliance Building
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 34 reviews
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
I remember when the Prudential Building was the tallest building in Chicago. How times have changed. Of course, there was a time when the Reliance Building, was recognized as a "skyscraper," all 14 floors of it. Located at 1 West Washington Street, at State Street, in the center of what once was known as "That Great Street," the Reliance Building was designed by architect John Root in 1890 and completed by Charles Atwood in 1895. It was the first skyscraper to have large plate glass windows make up the majority of its surface area, foreshadowing a design feature that would become commonplace in the 20th century. It remains significant for other reasons, including its white glazed terra cotta facade and steel frame superstructure. It also was one of the first skyscrapers to offer electricity and telephone service to all of its offices. The lobby is a showcase with its 20-foot-high ceiling, Italian marble, elegant mosaic floor tiles and an old-time metal elevator grill with decorative wrought iron. Today, the building boasts the popular Atwood Cafe on the first floor with a fashionable boutique hotel, the 122-room Staypineapple, formerly the Hotel Burnham, filling the rest of the space. The Reliance Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Visitors still marvel at the "proto-Modernist" structure, which reflects the growth of Chicago's central retail district. How could it have been built in 1895?
