One-of-a-kind tours

UPCOMING ONE-OF-A-KIND TOURS

View of Michigan Ave (then Pine Street) and Chicago Avenue several days after the fire
courtesy Chicago History Museum (ICHi-13918)

Saturday, September 25, 9am–1pm

The Great Chicago Fire

This bus and walking tour explores one of the city’s most significant events, The Great Fire of 1871, through the lens of architectural history. The tour begins at CAF with a slide presentation on the basic history and myths of the Fire, as well as a discussion of construction methods and building materials. Next we travel by bus to a South Side neighborhood to view several pre-1870s structures as well as the site of the infamous O’Leary Family home. On the city’s North Side, we will examine the Old Town neighborhood to compare and contrast its buildings and residents before and after the Fire. We’ll stop at a few hidden gems along the way before ending the tour at the 1869 Water Tower and Pumping Station on Michigan Avenue.

Tour leader: Jen Masengarb, education specialist, Chicago Architecture Foundation

COST $30 CAF members; $40 non-members
LOCATION Lecture Hall Gallery, Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
AIA/CES 4
Register online

Tour is limited to 40 participants. Please dress for the weather and be prepared to do some walking. You are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch on the bus.

Simon's Tavern, Andersonville

Saturday, October 2, 6-10pm

City Lights: A Neon Tour of Chicago

Hit the streets at night for a brand new look at some of Chicago’s most historic and noteworthy neon architecture. This bus tour takes you past North Side favorites such as Gonnella Baking Company, Margie’s Candies, Heart O’ Chicago Motel, and Simon’s Tavern. Along the way, we’ll stop for dinner at a Chicago classic—Superdawg, a drive-in hot dog stand with carhop service that’s been in business since 1948.

Presented in partnership with

COST $40 CAF members; $50 non-members (cost includes dinner)
LOCATION Meet in the Chicago Architecture Foundation CitySpace Gallery on the first floor of the Santa Fe Building, 224 S. Michigan Avenue. Please arrive 20 minutes before departure; the bus departs promptly at 6pm.
AIA/CES 4
Register online

Tour is limited to 40 participants

Women's Club Bungalow, Independence Park (detail)
photo: Tom Drebenstedt

Sunday, October 3, 9:30am-12:30pm

Bungalow Anniversary Bus Tour

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Historic Chicago Bungalow Initiative with a special one-time-only tour of bungalows on the northwest side. We will visit Independence Park, where the Women's Club Bungalow is undergoing restoration to make it an eco-friendly special events building for the Chicago Park District; the Villa, Chicago’s premiere Arts and Crafts bungalow district; and North Mayfair, Chicago’s newest and largest bungalow historic district.

Presented in partnership with the Historic Chicago Bungalow Initiative

COST $30 CAF members; $40 non-members
LOCATION Meet in the Chicago Architecture Foundation CitySpace Gallery on the first floor of the Santa Fe Building, 224 S. Michigan Avenue. Please arrive 20 minutes before departure; the bus departs promptly at 9:30am.
AIA/CES 3

Flower Hall, Douglas Park

Saturday, October 16, 9:30am-3pm

Jens Jensen and Chicago’s West Side
Tour leader: Julia Bachrach, historian and preservationist, Chicago Park District

This tour, held in commemoration of Jens Jensen’s 150th birthday, is a full-day bus tour highlighting the achievements of Chicago’s famous Prairie style landscape designer. The tour features Humboldt, Garfield, Douglas, and Columbus Parks, emphasizing the relationship between Jensen’s landscape elements and buildings designed by noteworthy architects such as Hugh MG Garden, William Carbys Zimmerman, and Fromann and Jebsen. The tour will also include a visit to A Year in Humboldt Park, a photography exhibit displayed in Humboldt Park’s iconic boat house building.

LOCATION Meet in the Chicago Architecture Foundation CitySpace Gallery on the first floor of the Santa Fe Building, 224 S. Michigan Avenue. Please arrive 20 minutes before departure; the bus departs promptly at 9:30am.
AIA/CES 4
REGISTER Registration begins Wednesday, September 15th at 10am

RECENT ONE-OF-A-KIND TOURS

Paddling down the Chicago River
courtesy Kayak Chicago

August 5

Architectural Kayak Tour

Experience Chicago's magnificent architecture from a unique vantage point as you paddle down the Chicago River in a flat water kayak. Architect and kayak enthusiast Joel Berman leads the group from North Avenue to the Loop and back, discussing how the city grew from a small, back-country outpost into one of the world’s most important crossroads in less than 100 years. Along the way, he’ll provide an overview of the many buildings designed by some of America's greatest architects.

Historic Pullman row housing

May 22

Early Industrial Planned Communities: Marktown and Pullman

Join architect and preservationist Edward I. Torrez for a tour of two early industrial planned communities: Historic Pullman, on Chicago’s South Side, and the lesser-known Marktown, in East Chicago, Indiana. In 1880, George Pullman hired architect Solon Beman to design the first model industrial town for his Palace Car Company. Twelve miles away and nearly thirty years later, Chicago industrialist Clayton Mark acquired the services of Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw to design a model worker village for his newly built steel mill. This tour will consider the history of the two towns, with an emphasis on their architecture, and the preservation issues facing both communities today.

Edward I. Torrez, AIA, LEED AP, is a registered architect and a principal at BauerLatoza Studio Ltd. Mr. Torrez has been specializing in Historic Preservation, Adaptive Reuse, Rehabilitation, Interior Renovation and Urban Planning projects for over 20 years. He has managed award-winning projects such as the Manhattan Building Restoration, Pullman School Restoration, and Old Market House State Historic Site in Galena, Illinois.

Hear Edward Torrez discuss Marktown in a WBEZ interview with Richard Steele

Proposed Daniel Burnham Memorial courtesy David Woodhouse Architects

May 1

Lakefront Walking Tour with Architect David Woodhouse

Put on your walking shoes and join David Woodhouse, FAIA, President, David Woodhouse Architects, for a tour of several of his firm’s projects along Chicago’s lakefront. We will visit the DuSable Harbor Building, the visitor pavilions flanking Buckingham Fountain, and the front lawn of the Field Museum, where Woodhouse will describe his proposal for the Daniel Burnham Memorial. For those with unbounded energy, we’ll continue on to Burnham Harbor Park, where we’ll learn about his project for Gold Star Police Memorial Park.

Union Stockyard Gate

April 24

Across Chicago's South Side Neighborhoods with Dominic Pacyga

Join historian Dominic Pacyga to discover the rich variety of cultures that comprise our “City of Neighborhoods.” This six-hour bus tour will take you through some of the city's most famous and notorious neighborhoods with an eye on their historical past as well as the present. Starting in the Loop, the tour will travel south to Prairie Avenue, Bronzeville, Bridgeport, Back of the Yards, North Kenwood and beyond. We will stop for lunch at Francesca’s on Taylor Street.

Dominic Pacyga received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981 and currently teaches American History at Columbia College Chicago. He has authored, or co-authored, five books concerning Chicago 's history, including Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago; Chicago: City of Neighborhoods, with Ellen Skerrett; Chicago: A Historical Guide to the Neighborhoods, with Glen Holt; Chicago's Southeast Side, with Rod Sellers, and Chicago: A Biography.

photo: Anne Evans

February 6

Chicago Lakefront Bus Tour
TOUR LEADERS
Michael Chrzastowski, Ph.D., Senior Coastal Geologist, Illinois State Geological Survey
Eleanor Roemer, Friends of the Parks

The 1909 publication of the Plan of Chicago provided a vision for the development of the Chicago lakefront as a shore devoted to public access, recreation, and aesthetics. What this tour will investigate is how the present lakeshore and its construction history compares with what Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett proposed, and what aspects of their vision were either practical or impractical based on coastal geology, coastal processes, and coastal engineering.