24 Places to Visit and Color
Jake Rose
Illustrations by Various Artists
Photo by ajay_suresh
1. Chicago Riverwalk Reclaiming the Chicago River for the city’s ecological, recreational, and economic benefit, the Chicago Riverwalk has a little of something for everyone–from enjoying the stunning outdoor bars and restaurants to kayaking alongside the River. Designed by Skidmore, Owens and Merrill in 2001 and completed in 2016, the Riverwalk complements Wacker Drive and bring residents and visitors down to the river level. Covering 1.25-miles through the heart of Chicago, the Chicago Riverwalk offers new ways to enjoy Chicago’s serene waterfronts and bustling cityscapes.
2. Millennium Park/the Bean Millennium Park is more than an attraction – it’s an expression of the Chicago experience. Located on the northwest portion of Grant Park, Millennium Park was envisioned by Mayor Richard Daley in the late 1990s as a way to provide more public green space. Its completion in 2004 gave Chicagoans a brand new way to define themselves in their hometown. Home to the Cloud Gate statue (aka “The Bean”), interactive fountains, tranquil gardens, free events, public art, skating rinks, rock climbing, and plenty of green space, Millennium Park has everything to offer for Chicago’s many residents and tourists. One of Chicago’s most popular sights, Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean”, reflects Chicago’s skyline and the surrounding green space. Designed by Anish Kapoor in 2004, the sculpture is one of the world’s largest permanent outdoor art installations. Inspired by liquid mercury, the Bean’s shiny exterior reflects the people moving around the park, the lights of Michigan Avenue, and the surrounding skyline and green space – perfectly encapsulating the Millennium Park experience.
Photo by Thomas Barrat
3. Chicago Children's Museum The Chicago Children’s Museum improves children’s lives by creating a community where play and learning connect. In 1982, the Junior League of Chicago were frightened after seeing slashes to arts programming for children throughout the city. To combat the cuts, they joined forces with the Education Resource Center, Columbia College, and Loyola University to create the Express-Ways Children’s Museum–which would become the Chicago Children’s Museum. For the last 4 decades, CCM has grown from that museum, housed in a couple of hallways in the Chicago Cultural Center, to what it is today: a place that has provided arts programs, STEM experiments, and play to its members both young and young at heart.
Photo by Knarfol
5. Museum of Science and Industry One of the world’s largest science museums, the Museum of Science and Industry has both an illustrious history and a focus on the future of science and science education. Watching his child enthralled by an interactive museum display, Julius Rosenwald resolved to share that experience with Chicago. Since it opened in 1933, MSI has been dedicated to inspiring the genius in everyone with uniquely interactive experiences. Today, MSI is the Western Hemisphere’s largest science museum, but also works to provide these moments of discovery beyond their walls. Through their Welcome to Science Initiative, they create learning experiences inside and outside the classroom and remove barriers that exclude youth from participating with programs for teachers, schools, families and communities. Together, these are the ways MSI brings science to life for children and adults of all ages, all while pursuing their vision of inspiring and motivating children to achieve their full potential in science, technology, medicine, and engineering.
Photo by Daniel Schwen
7. Chicago Theatre The Chicago Theatre’s grandeur often leaves visitors breathless. The elegant lobby, grand balcony, majestic staircase, and a beautiful mural-filled auditorium all combine together to make it the Wonder Theatre of the World”. Built by the Balaban and Katz theatre chain and designed by Cornelius and George Rapp, the Chicago Theatre opened in 1921 as America’s first lavish movie palace. The Theatre’s French Baroque exterior features a terra cotta replica of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe above its marquee. Within the arch is a window that has a stained-glass panel bearing Balaban and Katz’s coat-of-arms–two horses holding ribbons of film in their mouths. At six stories high, the “C-H-I-C-A-G-O” sign is a landmark symbol of State Street and Chicago. Saved from demolition by Chicago Theatre Restoration Associates, restored by Daniel Coffey & Associates, Ltd. and A.T. Heinsbergen & Co., and reopened in 1986, the entertainment world’s brightest stars have since graced the Chicago Theatre’s stage, including Kelly Clarkson, Aretha Franklin, Indigo Girls, Alicia Keys, David Letterman, Oasis, Dolly Parton, Prince, Diana Ross, and Robin Williams.
Photo by Ken Lund
8. Chicago Cultural Center One of Chicago’s most visited attractions, the majestic Chicago Cultural Center is home to two gorgeous stained–glass domes, as well as free music, dance, theater, films, lectures, and exhibits. Designed by Shepley Rutan and Coolidge in 1892 as both a library and a memorial for Union veterans who served in the Civil War, the Chicago Public Library was completed in 1897 as an enduring monument to Chicago. The country’s top architects and craftsmen used marbles, brass, hardwoods, and mosaics to create an architectural masterpiece. Located on the building’s south side is the world’s largest stained glass Tiffany dome – 38 feet in diameter with 30,000 pieces of fish-scaled shaped glass. On the building’s north side is Healy and Millet’s 40-footdiameter dome with 50,000 pieces of glass. Established as the Chicago Cultural Center in 1991, this People’s Palace has since presented hundreds of free artists, musicians, and performances, in the process providing a showcase where the public can enjoy and learn about the arts. Come for the beauty and stay for the free public events, as there is always something going on at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Photo by Moses8910
9. Navy Pier As one of the world’s most visited destinations Navy Pier is where you go in Chicago for events, programs, attractions, culture, dining, and shopping. As the place where fun lives large, the People's Pier offers a diverse range of activities and experiences that ignite the imagination, stimulate the senses, and allow spirits to soar. It is no surprise it's a place that continues to inspire discovery and wonder after over a century. Designed in 1909 by Daniel Burnham, the facility opened in 1916 as Municipal Pier No. 2 – the first of its kind to combine shipping with public entertainment. Built for $5 million, the People’s Pier is still to this day the world’s largest pier, projecting over 3,000 feet into Lake Michigan. Obtaining its current name Navy Pier in 1927 and reopening in 1995, this lakefront treasure has evolved into an impressive entertainment center that consists of awe-inspiring features like the gigantic Centennial Wheel, the gorgeous Aon Grand Ballroom, the magnificent Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the beautiful Polk Bros Park, the spacious East End Plaza, and the iconic Head House.
Photo by Joe Ravi
10. Field Museum The Field Museum fuels a journey of discovery across time to enable solutions for a brighter future rich in nature and culture. Located on the Lake Michigan shore, the Field Museum opened its current building in Grant Park in 1921. Designed by Peirce Anderson of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, the building is a castle dedicated to unlocking the secret of natural sciences. However, its story really begins with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, as the Expo’s many natural wonders and cultural artifacts would eventually find a home at the Museum. The museum is named after Marshall Field, the man who donated $1 million to make the dream of a permanent museum a reality. Since the Museum opened in 1894 in the Palace of Fine Arts Building in Jackson Park, their collection has grown to nearly 40 million artifacts and specimens–most notably including SUE, the largest and most complete T. rex ever discovered. Always evolving, the museum continues to research the objects in their collections, document new species, conserve ecosystems, and educate scientists–all to ensure that the planet thrives for generations to come.
Photo by Baseball636
11. Shedd Aquarium Shedd Aquarium combines the best of 20th-century “age of aquariums” characteristics–a diverse, global animal collection surrounded by eye-popping architecture–with 21st-century advances in animal care, environments, and interpretation. Desiring to give back to his hometown, John Shedd decided to provide Chicago with a grand and stately aquarium that would complement the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. But Shedd never saw his aquarium, as he died in 1926. The Shedd Aquarium Society’s board of directors carried on in his memory, and ground was broken in 1927. Completed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in 1930 on Roosevelt Road, Shedd Aquarium is a neoclassical Beaux-Arts temple of white marble and terra cotta that celebrates aquatic life, from the marine fossils in its limestone floor to Neptune’s trident capping its glass dome. Designed with an octagonal footprint, Shedd has had two major expansions – The Abbott Oceanarium and Wild Reef – which combined have nearly doubled the Aquarium’s square footage and made possible vast habitats for marine mammals and large sharks and rays.
Photo provided by The Second City
18. The Second City For over sixty years, legendary Chicago institution The Second City has called Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood home. The theater’s iconic stone archway outside of the Piper’s Alley building originally graced the façade of the Garrick Theater, a 19th-century Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler masterpiece. When that theater was demolished in 1961, the arches were rescued and found a new home at The Second City. Since then, generations of comedy superstars have walked through beneath them before finding fame, from Bill Murray to Tina Fey to Keegan-Michael Key. According to Chicago legend, the four stone faces depict prominent artists of the 18th and 19th centuries: opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, novelist Fritz Reuter, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and philosopher, dramatist, and art critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.
MA IN ST A G E
Color Chicago is filled to the brim with the town's most iconic settings, like the Willis Tower, Millennium Park, the Chicago Riverwalk, Wrigley Field, and Navy Pier, among many others.
Through its 24 beautiful black-and-white line drawings and detailed descriptions, “Color Chicago” masterfully highlights what makes the Windy City so special to its residents and visitors.
www.colorourtown.com