This year marks the 125th anniversary of Chicago’s Auditorium Building, known as one of the masterpieces of Louis Sullivan and his partner Dankmar Adler. As a monument to Chicago’s post-fire civic pride, a 4300-seat theatre (largest in the country) was built into an 18-story hotel and office building (also the country’s largest). Today, the building is home to Roosevelt University.
The building is full of engineering innovations, but is best known for the artistic detail lavished on it, which can be seen in these pictures of the lobby and staircases; the view of the auditorium itself is not mine; when I visited, the auditorium was being restored to its original appearance and was not open to the public.
