Open House Chicago

This weekend the Chicago Architecture Foundation hosted an event that opened more than 100 buildings and sites to the public, offering tours and behind the scenes glimpses rarely seen usually.

We first visited the 3rd floor "roof" garden at Lake Point Tower, near Navy Pier. They have an incredible grassy, park-like area that surrounds the whole building - three floors up. There's a pond or two and a playground. Really gorgeous.



Lev climbs with Navy Pier in the background.

Next we visited Tribune Tower, believe it or not! Mom stood in line a good 20 minutes to get into her own work building.

And we were so glad we waited, too. There was so much interesting information given about the building and the paper - Mom was inspired to read more about the history of the place. Too bad the Tribune doesn't give regular tours of the tower, but we got a few pictures from the old publisher's office.



Lev and Linc thought it was funny that there was a built-into-the-wall tiny bathroom.

This is Mom's favorite quote ever, over the doorway in the lobby.


This is a plaque of Tribune soldiers and sailors with WWI and WWII service.

And this is the view out the window toward the Wrigley Building.

The next day we visited Pritzker Pavilion - site of many of our music concerts on the grassy lawn and in the seats - at Millennium Park. A guide told us the lawn and seats can hold about 20,000 people. We got to go backstage and onstage!

The kids performed: