Museum
Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago
Limestone-and-glass gallery building with a monumental thirty-two-step entrance stair inspired by ancient Athens.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago traces why critics nicknamed Josef Paul Kleihues's 1996 building a fortress, despite fifty-six feet of glass rising above just sixteen feet of stone. It follows the German architect's first American commission, from the thirty-two step entrance modeled on the Acropolis in Athens to the cast aluminum panels that nod to Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Count the steps as you climb them; Kleihues borrowed their exact geometry from Berlin and Athens.
This audio guide was created using AI.