Chicago Art Deco Walking Tour: From the Great Fire to the Century of Progress

Key facts

• The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed 9 square kilometers of the city, killing over 300 people and leaving a third of the population homeless.
• The Home Insurance Building (1885) was the world's first skyscraper, standing 42 meters with a steel frame.
• Art Deco celebrates its centenary in 2025, having emerged in Europe in the 1920s.
• The Century of Progress Exposition (1933-34) was Chicago's second World's Fair and promoted Art Deco and Modernist aesthetics.
• The Chicago Board of Trade Building (1930) by Holabird & Root features a 45-story tower with a statue of Ceres by John Storrs on its pyramidal roof.
• The Carbide & Carbon Building (1929) by Burnham Brothers is clad in black granite, green and gold terracotta, and 24-karat gold leaf; its design is said to be inspired by a champagne bottle.
• The Merchandise Mart (1930) was the world's largest building at opening, with over 370,000 square meters of floor space; it was owned by the Kennedy family from 1945 for over 50 years.
• The Adler Planetarium (1930) by Ernest A. Grunsfeld Jr was the first modern planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, decorated with bronze zodiac panels by Italian sculptor Alfonso Iannelli.