Chicago Cultural Center: Dramatic Domes Dominate

In this installment of ‘Larger Than Life: Architecture Through the Ages,’ we visit a neoclassical structure in the Windy City with extravagant art-glass domes.

Limestone has often been the sedimentary rock of choice for the construction of extraordinary structures, due primarily to the stone’s durability and workability. The Chicago Cultural Center’s walls, made of Indiana limestone, are three-feet thick. The masonry structure, adorned with symmetrically aligned arches and columns, sits atop a granite base. Roy Harris/Shutterstock

What was once Chicago’s main public library has become an art exhibition center and prominent reception and event venue in America’s third largest city. The circa-1897 building was designed by the Boston firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge.

The building’s restrained exterior of limestone block, conveying classical Greek and Roman design elements, contrasts with the lavishly palatial interior. Rooms modeled after esteemed sites as the Doge’s Palace in Venice, the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence, and the Acropolis in Athens have earned the structure the informal moniker “The People’s Palace.”