Page 49 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Chicago

DOWNT OWN C ORE  47

enterprises remain in the
building, including the Fine
Arts Building Gallery in Suite
433, which showcases Chicago
artists with a new exhibition
each month. There are also
two movie theaters.
The sound of singers
practicing scales can be heard
echoing through the halls, and
a ride in the old elevator (with
an operator) is an experience
not to be missed.
The Artist’s Café on the ground floor of the Fine Arts Building
8 Santa Fe Building
7 Fine Arts Building the building as a cultural 224 S Michigan Ave. Map 4 D2.
center. The facade of the
410 S Michigan Ave. Map 4 D2. Tel (312) 341-9431. q Adams.
Tel (312) 566-9800. q Library. eighth floor was removed and Open 24 hrs daily. Closed major
@ 3, 4, 145, 147, 151. Open 7am– replaced with a three-story public hols.
10pm Mon–Fri; 7am–9pm Sat; addition. Inside, studios, shops,
10am–5pm Sun. Closed major and offices were added, and The Santa Fe Building gleams –
public hols. 7 the building quickly became inside with white marble, and
a hub of artistic activity. The outside with white-glazed terra-
Although now closely literary magazines Dial, Poetry, cotta. Designed by D.H. Burnham
associated with fine art and and Little Review were and Co. in 1904 and originally
culture, the Fine Arts Building published here; the Little known as the Railway Exchange
was originally commissioned Theater staged dramas; and Building, it is now called the
by Studebaker Brothers painters, sculptors, and Santa Fe because of the rooftop
Manufacturing to house a architects (including Frank sign, erected in the early 1900s
wagon carriage showroom. Lloyd Wright, see p32) had by the Santa Fe Railroad.
(The name “Studebaker” their studios on the tenth Porthole windows line the
inscribed outside in stone is floor. In 1892, resident artists, top floor; terra-cotta reliefs of
still visible above the first floor.) including Frederic Clay Bartlett ancient goddesses decorate
Designed by Solon S. Beman and Ralph Clarkson, formed a the vestibule. The atrium’s
and completed in 1885, the group called the Little Room balustraded mezzanine,
building, with its columns, and produced eight murals, marble staircase, and elevators
rough stone, and arched which still can be seen on the with grillwork are all notable.
entranceway and windows, is walls of the tenth floor. The building also houses
typical of the Romanesque style. Today the building, which the Chicago Architecture
When the Studebaker has been given national Foundation, which has a “mini-
Company moved to a new historic landmark status, has museum” detailing the history
location, Beman was a slightly frayed, run-down of Chicago architecture and
commissioned to renovate charm. Many arts-related offers guided tours of the city.

White-marble lobby of the Santa Fe Building

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