Chicago's Pioneering Women in Architecture
Who became the first woman licensed to practice architecture in Illinois in 1898?
Who was Marion Mahony Griffin? She was also Frank Lloyd Wright’s first hire at his Oak Park studio. Her exquisite renderings and design sensibility were instrumental in shaping the visual identity of the Prairie School movement.
What conservation district, established in 1914 near Chicago, became the first urban-adjacent preserve of its kind in the United States?
What is The Forest Preserve District of Cook County? It was created to preserve natural lands near the growing city of Chicago and provide public access to nature.
The Great Chicago Flood of 1992 began when construction workers accidentally punctured an old freight tunnel beneath the riverbed of this downtown bridge.
What is the Kinzie Street Bridge? Workers driving pilings for bridge work breached the roof of a forgotten underground freight tunnel beneath the Chicago River, causing water to flood into the tunnel system and eventually into downtown basements and buildings, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
In which 2006 sci-fi romance film, starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, does Reeves’ character live in a house built entirely over water just outside Chicago?
What is The Lake House? The film blends romance and time travel as his character exchanges letters across time with Sandra Bullock’s character. A memorable scene was also filmed at Miller’s Pub, a beloved Chicago institution known for its vintage charm and deep local roots.
Which historic downtown Chicago building, originally designed in the Art Nouveau and Chicago School styles, earned the nickname "Goth Target" after a viral TikTok trend praised its ornate ironwork and moody, dramatic façade?
What is the Sullivan Center? Despite its roots in early modernist design, its dark, decorative exterior led social media users to affectionately dub it the "Goth Target" when a Target store opened inside in 2012.
Who became the first woman to establish her own architecture firm in Chicago in 1914?
Who was Elisabeth A. Martini? Despite being rejected by nearly 90 firms due to her gender, she persisted, earned her license in 1913, and launched her own practice the following year.
Which Chicago building, built in 1885 and demolished in 1931, sparked early concerns about light and air in dense urban environments?
What is the Home Insurance Building? It is most commonly credited with sparking early concerns about light and air in dense urban environments. While the Montauk Building (1882–1902) was also an early skyscraper, it was the Home Insurance Building that drew more significant attention due to its innovative structural system and the broader impact it had on urban form and zoning discussions.
Known as, “The City Beneath the City,” what 60-mile underground network, built between 1899 and the 1930s, once transported freight, mail, and coal via small electric trains beneath downtown Chicago?
What is the Chicago Tunnel Company System? This subterranean network ran beneath the Loop and was used to efficiently move goods without congesting surface streets. Though largely forgotten today, it played a vital role in the city’s infrastructure for decades.
In the 1987 comedy "Adventures in Babysitting," the kids find themselves in a heart-pounding situation atop which under-construction Chicago skyscraper?
What is the Crain Communications building? This building is also famously known for its diamond-shaped slanted roof and was previously called the Smurfit–Stone Building.
Which 1978 Chicago ordinance requires that a portion of the budget for new public buildings and major renovations be allocated to commissioning or purchasing original artwork, helping to establish one of the most robust municipal public art programs in the country?
What is the Percent for Art Ordinance? Passed by the Chicago City Council in 1978, the Percent-for-Art Ordinance mandates that 1.33% of the construction or major renovation budget for eligible city-owned buildings and public spaces be set aside for public art. At least half of the commissions must go to artists from the Chicago area, supporting local talent and integrating art into the city’s civic landscape.
A Chicago native, she became the first African-American woman licensed as an architect in the U.S. in 1942, before relocating to practice in New York.
Who was Beverly Lorraine Greene? She later moved to New York City, where she worked on major projects including the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and buildings for NYU.
Which architect, in collaboration with Sasaki Associates, led the transformation of Chicago’s Riverwalk into a celebrated public waterfront space?
Who is Carol Ross Barney? She led the architectural redesign of the Chicago Riverwalk, transforming it into a vibrant, accessible, and award-winning public space along the Chicago River.
Which iconic Chicago building was originally commissioned in 1899 by the Schlesinger & Mayer Department Store?
What is the Sullivan Center? Designed by Louis Sullivan, it is a landmark of early commercial architecture, celebrated for its elegant cast-iron ornamentation and expansive display windows.
In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which sleek, glass-walled modernist house in Highland Park—designed by architect James Speyer and later renovated by David Haid—served as the home of Cameron Frye, famously featuring a dramatic scene involving a Ferrari and a plate-glass garage?
What is the Ben Rose House? It's is a striking example of mid-century modern architecture designed in 1953.
Which historic Chicago skyscraper—once the tallest in the city when it was completed in 1927—is now being renovated by TikTok personality Tom Liravongsa, also known as “The Skyscraper Guy,” after he impulsively purchased 30 of it's 38 floors in 2023?
What is the "Pittsfield Building" at 55. E Washington Street? Designed in a blend of Gothic Revival and Art Deco styles, it features ornate terra cotta, a five-story atrium, and historic details like a Prohibition-era speakeasy and a vintage mail chute. Tom is now documenting its transformation into residential units, where his behind-the-scenes videos have gone viral.
In 1980, she became the first female president of the Chicago chapter of the AIA.
Who is Gertrude Lempp Kerbis? She was a pioneering figure in modernist architecture and a strong advocate for women in the field, also founding Chicago Women in Architecture in 1974.
The failures of massive mid-century public housing projects like Cabrini-Green prompted a national re-evaluation of which modernist architectural concept?
What is the "Tower-in-the-Park" model? It was a modernist urban planning idea championed by architects like Le Corbusier, which emphasized high-rise residential buildings surrounded by open green space. While intended to provide light, air, and order, in practice it often led to isolation, poor maintenance, and social challenges in public housing developments.
Which downtown Chicago building once featured a basement-level 'crystal bridge' entrance that provided direct access to the Red Line 'L' station—an entrance that was permanently closed following the Great Chicago Flood?
What is the Sullivan Center? It was closed following the Great Chicago Flood of 1992, which caused extensive underground flooding and led to the sealing of many such subterranean connections for safety reasons.
Which Chicago university, known for its 1960s brutalist campus with exposed concrete and a grid-like design, served as a key filming location in "Stranger Than Fiction?"
What is UIC? UIC’s stark, modernist architecture—designed in part by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill—provided the perfect backdrop for the film’s themes of order and existential reflection.
This clever portmanteau captures the viral trend of short-form videos—especially on TikTok—that spotlight striking and unconventional architecture, like the famously moody "Goth Target."
What is Tiki-itecture? A portmanteau of TikTok and architecture, and it refers to the growing movement where creators use short-form videos to highlight striking, unusual, or aesthetically compelling buildings.
Who became the first — and remains the only — woman credited as Principal Designer of the tallest building designed by a woman, beginning with which project and in what year?
Who is Jeanne Gang? She first earned the distinction of designing the tallest building by a woman with the Aqua Tower, completed in 2009.
Due to an 1836 plat and reinforced by later legal battles, what condition must Chicago’s lakefront permanently maintain?
What is "Forever Open, Clear & Free?" This principle was most notably the 1892 Supreme Court case Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Illinois, which reinforced the public trust doctrine — ensuring that the lakefront remains public land for the benefit of all.
Which neo-Gothic skyscraper on Michigan Avenue features over 150 stones from famous landmarks around the world embedded in its base, including the Great Wall of China and the Parthenon?
What is the Tribune Tower? These stones in the Tower were collected by correspondents of the Chicago Tribune.
In the climactic chase scene of The Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood race through downtown Chicago—speeding under the 'L' tracks and causing chaos—before finally crashing their car into the lobby of which famous Chicago building?
What is The Richard J. Daley Center? The building, known for its modernist architecture and the iconic Picasso sculpture in its plaza, serves as the final destination where the brothers deliver the tax payment to save their childhood orphanage.
Which Chicago-based artist founded the Rebuild Foundation in 2009 and is known for transforming abandoned buildings—such as a former bank on Stony Island Avenue—into vibrant cultural spaces?
Who is Theaster Gates? He is a Chicago-based artist, urban planner, and cultural innovator known for blending art, architecture, and social practice to revitalize underserved communities