Chicago, IL–Want to see the inside one of the last urban houses Frank Lloyd Wright designed in Chicago, the Emil Bach house on Sheridan Road? How about the former stage of Louis Armstrong’s Sunset Cafe in Bronzeville, now a hardware store? What about the view of Millennium Park from a private conference room atop the Santa Fe Building? You can see all these and more–for free–this fall at Chicago’s first-ever openhouseChicago, sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. From October 14-16, 2011, the city opens doors to more than 120 rarely seen sites as part of an architecture extravaganza weekend. Sites will be accessible by public transportation hubs like the CTA “L”, with trolleys shuttling folks to specific sites. Now’s your chance to see neighborhoods like Little Village, Bronzeville, and Garfield Park, with knowledgeable docents and free admission. Some places, like North Lawndale’s transformation of the former Sears catalog site by Homan Square into a neighborhood YMCA, day care, schools, and medical facility, may surprise you.
