Chicago Museums: The Art Institute and the Museum Campus

May 18 is International Museum Day, so we're going to focus on the architecture of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) and museums on the Museum Campus: the Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and Field Museum. The main building of the Art Institute was already built when Daniel Burnham proposed the location for the Field Museum at the south end of Grant Park in 1909 in the Plan of Chicago. Burnham also recommended that other intellectual institutions for the public live in Grant Park, leading to the placement of Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium on the lakeshore. These fulfilled Burnham's vision of recreational and educational opportunities for all in the heart of Chicago.

The current main building of the Art Institute was built in 1893 for the World's Columbian Exposition and hosted the World's Parliament of Religions, part of the Exposition. The style is Beaux Arts, which emphasized Classical details and highly decorated surfaces. Designed by Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge, who also built the Cultural Center, it is one of the few buildings from the World's Columbian Exposition that survives, opening as the Art Institute of Chicago on December 8, 1893.

In 1916, the first expansion of the Art Institute was made over the Illinois Central Rail Road tracks. It now houses the Indian and southeast Asian sculpture collection. Additions were made to the north (the B.F. Ferguson Memorial Building) and south (the Morton Wing) along with Mrs. Stanley McCormick's donation of gardens to link the additions to Grant Park in the late 1950s and early 1960s. An eastern extension was added in the 1970s and in 1994 the Ryerson Library was restored and had underground stacks added. The Modern Wing broke ground in 2005 on the site of the old Goodman Theatre. It holds the AIC's collection of 20th and 21st century art, one of the largest such collections in an encyclopedic museum.

When it was built in 1930, the Adler Planetarium was the only planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. Placed on Chicago's lakefront in part to be out of range of the city's light pollution, it was named for Max Adler, a vice president at Sears, Roebuck & Co., who provided seed money. In addition to using rainbow granite, two unusual features of the original building are its 12-sided shape and lack of windows. Maude Bennot, while technically only the "acting director" from 1937 to 1945, was the first woman to lead a major science museum.

Because of limited space aboveground, an underground addition to the Adler Planetarium opened in 1973. This included the Kroc Universe Theater, food services, classrooms, an exhibition hall, gift shop, and a library. In 1999, the award-winning Sky Pavilion opened, which in addition to an extensive renovation of the original building expanded and added exhibition spaces as well as adding the first windows. While closed for nearly two years due to Covid, the Adler Planetarium was not idle. When they reopened, there was a model of Ingenuity, the latest Mars rover, and a new Community Design Lab, Red Rover, where visitors could design and solve problems with their own martian vehicles. 

The Shedd Aquarium is named for John G. Shedd, who went from stock boy to president of Marshall Field & Co. and wanted to give back to the city. Designed as a "temple of Neptune," by Chicago architectural firm Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, the Beaux Arts design includes both marble and terra cotta as well as marine fossils in the floor. Unlike Classical temples, however, the original building is an octagon. John Shedd donated the seed money of three million dollars, but did not live to see the opening of his gift to the city in 1930, the same year as the opening of the Adler Planetarium.

The Shedd Aquarium has expanded twice, in ways that have put it on the list of National Historic Landmarks. The first expansion was the Abbott Oceanarium, which opened in 1991. Using the same Georgia limestone used in the original building, it houses the marine mammal habitat and auditorium. The Wild Reef opened in 2003 underneath the original South Terrace and is the home of sharks and large rays along with other reef creatures.

The Field Museum, named for Marshall Field, was also designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst and White. When it opened on May 2, 1921, families waited in a line that stretched for miles. However, the collection had its roots in the World's Columbian Exposition nearly 30 years earlier. It was the brainchild of Frederic Ward Putnam, head of Ethnology at the WCE.

First housed in the Palace of Fine Arts (now the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry) from the World's Fair, the current site of the quickly growing collection was part of Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. Under the leadership for Stanley Field (nephew of Marshall and for whom the main hall is named), ground was broken in 1915. The building is made with Georgia marble and because of the high water table, some of the foundations go down 95 feet. In each corner of Stanley Field Hall is a Maiden that symbolizes one of the areas of the museum's study: Geology, Botany, Zoology, and Anthropology. In 2005, the Resource Center added 186,000 square feet of space on two underground levels.

An integral part of Chicago's downtown and lakefront, these museums are architectural and cultural gems. Objects of beauty both inside and out, they have formed the background to outings and celebrations of generations of Chicagoans as well as educating and entertaining them. If you want more information on these museums, please visit Special Collections at Harold Washington Library Center and as you plan your vacations, keep these treasures in mind.