Wrightwood 659

The original building is a four-story apartment house put up between 1929 and 1930 behind a red-brick shell, on a residential street in Lincoln Park; it held 38 units. It belonged to Fred Eychaner, whose neighbouring house is also by Ando (completed in 1997, one of the first two works he built in the US along with the Art Institute of Chicago's Japanese-screen gallery, opened in 1992). Some fifteen years later Eychaner asked him to turn it into an art venue, on one condition: the brick exterior had to stay. Eychaner explains that the aim was to respect the setting of a mixed, residential street. Ando says he thought this would be difficult, but that he truly felt the brick walls were a symbol of Chicago.

Eychaner and the architectural historian Dan Whittaker founded the venue, a private, non-commercial initiative devoted to architecture and socially engaged art. Work was completed in May 2018; the first exhibition was "Ando and Le Corbusier: Masters of Architecture", which set the two architects side by side.

Ando kept the masonry shell and removed the whole interior: a new steel and reinforced-concrete structure was built inside the perimeter wall. To hold the brick walls, a steel bracing frame was first erected through openings cut in the interior walls, the floors and the roof, before the interior was demolished; this skeleton became the permanent structure, its beams linked by poured-in-place concrete joists and its columns encased in concrete. Steel micropiles carry the load down to bedrock and push piles strengthen the foundations beneath the brick walls. Tadao Ando Architect & Associates designed the work with Vinci|Hamp Architects and Gensler as associate architects, Thornton Tomasetti as structural engineer and Norcon as general contractor.

The heart of the project is a three-story atrium, running the full height of the original building and clad in Chicago common brick. Its walls, 18 inches (about 46 cm) thick, combine the existing masonry with a layer of tan bricks salvaged during demolition, set with ¾-inch (about 2 cm) recessed mortar joints that cast deep shadows under the lighting. The atrium floor is granite and its ceiling is oak slats; a concrete stair tower rises to the upper floors.

The galleries have white walls, oak floors and acoustic plaster ceilings. At the top, the structure added on the roof has a glass curtain wall, a cantilevered roof and a view of the Chicago skyline; the gallery on that level is lit from above. Two terraces extend it, one to the north for viewing art and one to the south with a sweeping view of the city, and a corridor linking them opens toward the neighbouring house and its reflecting pool.

It is an exhibition space devoted to architecture and socially engaged art, with no commercial purpose. Exhibitions change by season, and a single ticket gives admission to all those on view. Ando himself has been shown here: the 2018 inaugural exhibition set him beside Le Corbusier, and later exhibitions have been devoted to his work.

Tickets are bought in advance on the venue's website; they are timed, non-transferable and valid only for the date and time shown, and cannot be exchanged across exhibition seasons. The venue is open Wednesday 2-7 pm, Thursday 1-8 pm, Friday 12-7 pm and Saturday 10 am-5 pm; the door closes 90 minutes before closing.

The address is 659 W. Wrightwood Avenue, on the south side of the street, between Clark and Halsted Streets. There is no on-site parking; the nearest CTA station is Fullerton & Sheffield (Brown, Purple and Red lines). A free coat check takes large bags and backpacks; photography is encouraged, without flash or professional equipment. The space is accessible to visitors with disabilities.