CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — All it takes is a walk around Chicago’s Fine Arts Building to feel its history.
“To some degree, it's hidden in plain sight,” said Jacob Harvey, the building’s managing artistic director. “You might walk down Michigan Avenue and miss it.”
You can also hear the creativity that wafts through its 10 historical floors.
“You can walk through this building at any point, and I almost guarantee you'll hear music,” Harvey said. “You'll hear someone rehearsing, you'll hear someone playing, you'll see someone painting or working in their studio through the window. It's a pretty special place and I don't think there's another place like it in the country.”
One hundred tenants occupy the 10 floors of the Fine Arts Building.
It’s home to the Chicago Puppet Festival, several violin and string instrument makers, musicians, performers, yoga and costume design.
“There's people who've been here for decades,” said Harvey. “It's sort of like stepping back in time but it's a beautiful intersection of the past, the present and the future.”
It's one of the last buildings in Chicago with a human operated elevator.
“What's so cool about it is that we are unique and everyone else has to push a button. You can't ever be in a rush in the Fine Arts Building,” he laughed. “Those elevators are manual and you also don't know who you might be inside of them. It's like traveling back in time.”
The manual elevator will be disappearing in 2024, though. As Harvey put it: “We do have to modernize the technology.”
He said to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Fine Arts Building and the Studebaker Theater, Oct. 13 will be Fine Arts Building Day and the public is invited inside. The celebration will include a free open house on Friday from 5 – 9 p.m., with performances beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Studebaker Theater.
“The whole building will be fully activated, from the bottom floor to the 10th floor,” he said. “All the artists are opening their studios. There will be musical demonstrations, puppet demonstrations, visual arts with their work on display, jewelry makers and different performances.”
The Fine Arts Building has created a self-guided walking tour of significant historical sites and artist studios on each of its 10 floors, with informational wall plaques providing more detail at each location about famous figures and institutions. Among them: Frank Lloyd Wright, the Chicago Women’s Club, Lorado Taft, Sherwood Music School and Studebaker Theatre Company.
“It also opened 125 years ago with a piano concert,” he said. “When it first started it was operas and vaudeville.”
As part of the 125th anniversary celebration, two free historic exhibits have opened on the Fine Arts Building’s fifth floor.
For those who can’t make Friday’s celebration, the Fine Arts Building is open for self-guided walking tours daily during regular building hours.
Additionally, “Second Fridays” events offer a peek into artists’ studios, where guests can meet the artists and craftspeople of the Fine Arts Building and learn about their work while enjoying refreshments and creative demonstrations. Second Fridays of every month from 5 – 9 p.m. The events include gallery openings and special performances throughout the building in order to bring all 10 floors to life.
The Fine Arts Building is also participating in the Chicago Architectural Center's annual Open House Chicago, which takes place this weekend.
“When you walk out of this building, you'll hopefully learn about why this building is so significant to Chicago, to the cultural corridor here on Michigan Avenue and hopefully want to come back and revisit some of the artists and shops here,” Harvey said.
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