Burnham Skate Park
31st Street and Lake Shore Drive
312-742-PLAY
Admission is free; the
park is closed in winter.
This 20,000-square-foot park for skateboarders and in-line skaters
features benches, curbs, rails, and smooth, curved metal surfacing
for protection.
The Loop
Elegant, ornamental details
abound in this building, including sparkling mosaic tiles, sculptured
ceilings, inscribed literary quotations, and a sweeping white
Carrara marble staircase.
The Preston Bradley
Hall, on the third floor has the world's largest Tiffany
stained-glass dome. Another magnificent stained-glass dome is
on the second floor in the GAR rotunda. The structure was constructed
in 1897 to serve a dual purpose. The Randolph Street and Washington
Street sides are different for this reason One was the entrance
to the city's central library, and the other to the Grand Army
of the Republic museum. The Cultural Center houses public spaces,
with free concerts and performances of all kinds, including live
music every weekday at 1 in the Randolph Café.
Citicorp Center
500 W. Madison St., Chicago
Near West Side
Across the Chicago River
from the Civic Opera House, the functions of commuter train station
and office building unite. The center combines a boxlike office
tower with glass half-cylinders rising from the lower levels.
Horizontal and vertical bands of mirrored and smoked glass alternate
up the building for a ribbon effect. It looks very much like the
grand old European railroad stations. The gates to the tracks
are elevated above street level to allow traffic to proceed east
and west via underpasses.
Grant Park , Chicago
Dedicated in 1844, this
park covers 319 acres along Lake Michigan and is home to the Shedd
Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and the Art
Institute.
Attraction type: Park
The Hancock Observatory
875 N. Michigan Avenue
John Hancock Center, Chicago
888-875-8439
Admission charged.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 12 a.m.
daily
It's not the tallest building in Chicago, but the 100-story Hancock
Tower is worth a visit for its magnificent cityscapes and the
interesting interactive exhibits on its 94th floor. Visitors take
a speedy elevator ride to the observation level, where "Soundscope" viewers give a narrated account (in one of four languages) of
what you're seeing through the telescope. Adults will enjoy the
Signature Lounge, a 96th-floor watering hole with a lakeside view.
Harold Washington
Library Center
400 S. State St., Chicago
Phone: 312/747-4300
The Loop
The center's holdings include
the Chicago Blues Archives, the Jazz/Blues/Gospel Hall of Fame,
and the Balaban and Katz Theater
Hull House Museum
800 S. Halsted Street, Chicago
312-413-5353
Cost: Free
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday; 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday
Honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Jane Addams did what
no one before her had thought to do. She moved into one of Chicago's
tenement neighborhoods and opened a "settlement house" to help meet the economic and social needs of her neighbors and
to encourage their involvement in improving their own community.
During the height of its activity, Hull House included a library,
gymnasium, theater and an art gallery. The museum, snuggled in
the heart of the University of Illinois-Chicago, consists of two
of the original 13 buildings, one an Arts and Crafts-style dining
hall built in 1905.
Hyde Park , Chicago
This neighborhood, located
south of the downtown area, is best known for being the home to
the University of Chicago.
Kohl Children's
Museum
165 Green Bay Road
Wilmette
847-512-1300
Admission charged.
Children ages 1ó8 can touch and explore the exhibits and
participate in planned daily activities.
Lincoln Park Zoo
2001 N. Clark Street, Chicago
312-742-2000
Admission charged per car.
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
daily
The oldest zoo in the country, Lincoln Park Zoo is still free
to visitors. But its greatest asset is its vast collection - 1,200
animals - and its dedication to teaching conservation and protection
of wildlife. The zoo's Lester E. Fisher Great Ape House is considered
one of the finest gorilla exhibits in the world. Other visitor
favorites include the Sea Lion Pool, the Bird House (where feathered
friends surround their homo sapiens visitors) and the Penguin
and Seabird House. And of course, there are plenty of elephants,
giraffes and rhinos/P>
Magnificent Mile
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
800-232-5558
A mecca for shoppers, Magnificent Mile runs along North Michigan
Avenue to Lincoln Park and rivals Rodeo Drive and Worth Avenue
for world-class shopping and restaurants. Comforting names like
The Gap accompany upscale Armani on the list of 60 well-known
retail establishments to line this spending paradise. Three shopping
malls are also nearby, and each is worthy of the Magnificent Mile's
high-class shopping reputation, and magnificent restaurants and
five-star hotels.
Millenium Park
Located in downtown Chicago
on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Monroe Streets, the 24.5-acre
park is an unprecedented center for world-class art, music, architecture
and landscape design, where you can experience everything from
interactive public art and ice skating to al fresco dining and
free classical music presentations by the Grant Park Orchestra
and Chorus. Among the park's prominent features is the dazzling
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert
venue of its kind in the United States, designed by Frank Gehry,
one of the world's greatest living architects. A pedestrian bridge,
also designed by Mr. Gehry and spanning Columbus Drive, provides
access to the pavilion, acts as an acoustical barrier between
the audience and traffic noise, and links Millennium Park to the
rest of Chicago's lakefront park system.
The park also is home to
one of the world's largest outdoor sculptures by the British artist
Anish Kapoor; the tradition-setting Lurie Garden designed by the
team of Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel; and
the Crown Fountain designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.
Mexican Fine Arts
Center
1852 West 19th Street
312-738-1503
Exhibits on traditional and contemporary Mexican art range in
medium from prints and drawings to papier-mâché and
from ceramics to historically significant photographs. Every autumn
the museum hosts the city's most visited Day of the Dead exhibit.
<Museum of Broadcast
Communications,
Michigan Avenue at Washington
Street
(in the Chicago Cultural Center)
312-629-6000
Free admission
Building tours are offered Tuesday-Saturday at 1:15 PM.
Open Mon.-Wed. 10-7, Thurs.
10-9, Fri. 10-6, Sat. 10-5, Sun. 11-5.
The MBC examines popular
culture and contem-porary American history through the sights
and sounds of television and radio. Featured are hands-on exhibits,
broadcasting memorabilia, and a public archives collection of
more than 60,000 radio and television programs and commercials.
Museum of Contemporary
Art
220 East Chicago Avenue
312-280-2660
The MCA exhibits painting, sculpture, photography, video and film,
and performance created since 1945. It includes a terraced sculpture
garden and has a great view of Lake Michigan.
Museum of Contemporary
Photography
Columbia College
600 South Michigan Avenue
312-663-5554
Free admission, The permanent collection focuses on American photography
produced since 1959.
Museum of Science
and Industry
57th Street and Lake Shore Drive
684-1414
More than 800 exhibits and 2,000 interactive units include a display
exploring the inner workings of the brain, an exhibit of a captured
German U-boat, and a trip down a replica coal mine. There is also
an Omnimax movie dome.
Museum of Surgical
Science
1524 North Lake Shore Drive
312-642-6502
Admission charged. free Tuesdays
With its collection of 7,000 surgery-related objects, manuscripts,
and artworks, this museum shows the discoveries and failures that
have shaped modern surgery.
National Vietnam Veterans
Art Museum
1801 South Indiana Avenue
312-326-0270
Art of 115 men and women who served in Vietnam.
Oak Street Beach
, Chicago
Great place for water sports
and biking.
Spertus Museum (Institute of Jewish Studies )
618 South Michigan Avenue
312-322-1747
Admission charged.
Spertus Museum welcomes students from all backgrounds to its galleries,
using its collections to introduce basic themes in Jewish religion
and culture.
Swedish American
Museum Center
5211 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: (773) 728-8111
Fax. (773) 728-8870
This museum aims to preserve
the Midwest's rich Swedish heritage by collecting, interpreting,
and displaying materials related to Swedish-American history.
Terra Museum of
American Art
664 North Michigan Avenue
312-664-3939
Free for students with valid ID
Ukrainian National Museum
721 N. Oakley Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60612
Phone: (312) 421-8020
Fax: (773) 693-7479
Tribune Tower , Chicago
The neo-gothic tower's
signature is the exterior collection of stones from other famous
edifices, like the Parthenon, St. Peter's Basilica, Notre Dame,
the White House and most recently, the Berlin Wall.
University of Chicago
5801 South Ellis Avenue
773-702-1234
The public attractions
include museums (Oriental Institute and Smart Museum of Art),
galleries, and a Frank Lloyd Wright home (Robie House). It also
is the site of the magnificent limestone edifice, Regenstein Library,
which features over 7 million volumes in addition to priceless
archives. The Rockefeller Memorial Chapel is a mini cathedral
with memorable stained glass windows, a 92-bell carillon and a
10,000 pipe organ.
Wrigley Building
, Chicago
This white, terra-cotta
landmark was built in 1922 as headquarters for the Wrigley chewing
gum company.
Wrigley Field , Chicago
One of America's smallest,
oldest, and best-loved ballparks, Wrigley is home to the Chicago
Cubs.
