Location: Chicago
Top Things to do in Chicago
Top 10 Shopping in Chicago, 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. InMotion Entertainment
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 5 reviews
2. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 21 reviews
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art promotes public awareness, understanding, and appreciation of intuitive and outsider art through education,exhibition, collecting and publishing. Intuit defines ‘intuitive and outsider art’ as the work of artists who demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world,and who instead are motivated by their unique personal vision. Thanks to our members, we are free and open to the public.
3. Logan Square Farmers Market
4. Wrightwood 659
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 9 reviews
Wrightwood 659 is a new exhibition space conceived for the presentation of exhibitions of architecture and of socially engaged art. It is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando, who has transformed a 1920s building with his signature concrete forms and poetic treatment of natural light. In a city rich with art institutions and internationally known for its architecture, Wrightwood 659 is designed as a site for contemplative experiences of art and architecture, and as a place to engage with the pressing social issues of our time. Located at 659 W. Wrightwood Avenue, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, it is a private, non-commercial initiative envisioned as an integral part of the cultural and civic fabric of Chicago, as well as a new kind of arts space and cultural resource.
Reviewed By Forkfull - New York City, United States
Wrightwood 659 has four floors of beautifully designed exhibition spaces. Contemporary art shines in the warm, spacious galleries. I used the handsome staircases, which offered birds eye views of the next art I was about to see. Not too big and not too small, Wrightwood 659 is perfect for an afternoon of art appreciation.
5. Thorne Miniature Rooms
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 7 reviews
Reviewed By 866TaylorB - Chicago, United States
My wife and I have browsed the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago on previous occasions. But after seeing the display of the Thorne collection at the Phoenix Art Museum during our recent two-week vacation in Arizona, we decided to make another visit to larger Thorne collection in Chicago. It is an exhibit unlike any other, a child's dream. Thorne Miniature Rooms are a set of about 100 miniature models of rooms created between 1932 and 1940 under the direction of Narcissa Niblack Thorne, who was born in 1882 in Vincennes, Indiana. As a child, she began to collect miniature furniture and household accessories. Her uncle, a U.S. Navy vice admiral, sent her many antique dollhouse miniatures from around the world. When she was 19, she married Montgomery Ward department store heir James Ward Thorne, whose fortune helped to finance her hobby. Ninety-nine of the rooms are still believed to be in existence. The majority of them, a total of 68, are on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, located at 111 South Michigan Avenue. We saw 20 of them at the Phoenix Art Museum. The Art Institute's rooms document European and American interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s and the 17th century to the 1930s, respectively. Constructed on a 1:12 scale, the rooms are largely made of the same materials as full-sized rooms and some even include original works of art, including paintings and sculpture, silver bowls and crystal chandeliers. They are among the most popular attractions at the Art Institute with an authentic appearance and attention to detail that boggles the mind.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Beverly Arts Center
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 13 reviews
9. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
10. Broadway Antique Market
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