Art Institute of Chicago Building

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and school, SAIC has been accredited since 1936 by the Higher Learning Commission, by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design since 1944 (charter member), and by the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) since the associations founding in 1991. Additionally it is accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. In a 2002 survey conducted by Columbia University's National Arts Journalism Program, SAIC was named the “most influential art school” in the United States. Its downtown Chicago campus consists of seven buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the AIC building. SAIC is in an equal partnership with the AIC and shares many administrative resources such as design, construction, and human resources. The campus, located in the Loop, comprises chiefly five main buildings: the McLean Center (112 S. Michigan Ave.), the Michigan building (116 S Michigan Ave), the Sharp (36 S. Wabash Ave.), Sullivan Center (37 S. Wabash Ave.), and the Columbus (280 S. Columbus Dr.). SAIC also holds classes in the Spertus building at 610 S. Michigan. SAIC owns additional buildings throughout Chicago that are used as student galleries or investments. There are three dormitory facilities: The Buckingham, Jones Hall, and 162 N State Street residencies.

The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries are the art and architecture research collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The libraries cover all periods with extensive holdings in the areas of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century architecture and 19th-century painting, prints, drawings, and decorative arts. A variety of materials important to scholarly research includes architects' diaries, correspondence, job files, photographs, sketchbooks, scrapbooks, articles, transcripts, and personal papers.

The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 million people annually. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, is encyclopedic, and includes iconic works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, and Grant Wood's American Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present cutting-edge curatorial and scientific research. As a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, and one of the largest art history and architecture libraries in the country—the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries. The growth of the collection has warranted several additions to the museum's 1893 building, which was constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition. The most recent expansion, the Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano, opened in 2009 and increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet, making it the second-largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Art Institute is associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a leading art school, making it one of the few remaining unified arts institutions in the United States. In 2017, the Art Institute received 1,619,316 visitors, and was the 35th most-visited art museum in the world. However, in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum was closed for 169 days, and attendance plunged by 78 percent from 2019, to 365,660.

Lions is a pair of outdoor 1893 bronze sculptures by Edward Kemeys, installed outside the Art Institute of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Large Interior Form, 1953–54 is a sculpture by Henry Moore.

Flying Dragon is a sculpture by Alexander Calder in the Art Institute of Chicago North Stanley McCormick Memorial Court (aka North Garden) north of the Art Institute of Chicago Building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is a painted steel plate work of art created in 1975 measuring 365 (H) x 579 (L) x 335 (W) cm (120 x 228 x 132 in.). It is painted in the signature "Calder Red" (which is also used in the nearby Flamingo) and is intended to represent a dragonfly in flight.

The Municipal Courts Building, also known as the Lake View Building, is a skyscraper located at 116 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The building was built from 1906 to 1907 to serve as a temporary home for Chicago's Municipal Court. Jacob L. Kesner built the building, which was originally 12 stories tall, on a strip of land only 40 feet (12 m) wide; Kesner was one of the few property owners willing to grant the Municipal Court of Chicago a short-term lease. The building was completed later than planned, had less square footage than promised, and charged a higher rent than a competing offer from a warehouse, prompting Mayor Edward Dunne to conduct an ethics investigation into the approval of the building contract. The court only used the building until 1911; after it moved out, Kesner added another five stories to the building.The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 29, 1985.

Fountain of the Great Lakes, or Spirit of the Great Lakes Fountain, is an allegorical sculpture and fountain by Lorado Taft. A bronze work of art, created between 1907 and 1913, the fountain depicts five women arranged so that the water flows in a way that seeks to recall the waterflow through the five Great Lakes of North America. In the Great Lakes, the waterflow begins in Lake Superior at 600 feet (180 m) above sea level and continues eastward through each lake until it reaches Lake Ontario. The Fountain is one of Taft's best known works. It is located in the public South McCormick Memorial Court of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Chicago Loop. The fountain was originally installed facing south where it remained until 1963, when it was moved next to the Morton Wing addition facing west. In its original location it was visible from the Jackson and Michigan Avenue intersection once known as "route center" to the south. The fountain was commissioned by the Benjamin Ferguson fund and one surface references the title B. F. Ferguson Fountain of the Great Lakes. There is a relief sculpture of Benjamin Ferguson on the rear panel that has been hidden from view since the fountain was moved.As the first commission from the Ferguson Fund, it experienced various funding delays. Additionally, the legal environment for land use in Grant Park was in flux at the time the commission was made, which caused delays in location selection. Once erected, the fountain received largely positive reviews, but a few critics questioned symbolism of the sculpture. Others were caught up in sociopolitical subtexts of the day, with regard to obscenity laws as it related to public art and this semi-nude work.

Cubi VII is a sculpture by David Smith in the Art Institute of Chicago North Stanley McCormick Memorial Court (aka North Garden) north of the Art Institute of Chicago Building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is a stainless steel work of art created in 1963 and part of the Cubi series of stainless steel works housed around the world.

Untitled is an outdoor 1987 granite sculpture by Ulrich Rückriem, installed outside the Art Institute of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois.

The Peoples Gas Building at 122 South Michigan Avenue on the corner of Adams Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois.

The Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago is a diplomatic mission of the Republic of the Philippines in the United States, representing the country's interests in the state of Illinois. Opened in 1948, it is currently located on the 16th floor of the Peoples Gas Building in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District, part of the Loop community area in downtown Chicago, across from the Art Institute of Chicago.