CHICAGO (WBBMNEWSRADIO) - The city gave a preview of the Chicago Cultural Center’s newly restored Grand Army of the Republic room and the 40 foot art glass rotunda.
The renovation project took a year to complete and cost $15M.
“I really like what you did with the place. This is really a remarkable project. This room was created within what was the old Chicago Central Library, completed in 1897,” said Chicago historian Tim Samuelson, who stood alongside Gunny Harboe of Harboe Architects, in the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall.
Harboe noted that the decorative finishes were painted over in the 1970s.
“There are thousands and thousands of men and women-hours that went into scraping the paint off these surfaces to get back. These are virtually the original surfaces on this ceiling,” Harboe said.
Harboe’s great grandfather served in the Civil War and he had his grandfather’s Grand Army of the Republic pin with him.
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