October's spectacular openhousechicago needs a few good men and women (800, actually, but who's counting, and what a view!)

Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill Architecture (click images for larger view)

Architecture, no matter the focus on exterior form, is not a wrapper, but an environment. And while we usually experience architecture by walking by or standing in front of it, on October 15th and 16th, you can soak it in, both inside and out.  The Chicago Architecture Foundation's extraordinary event, openhousechicago, will let visitors enter into some of the city's most distinctive and compelling interiors.

And they need your help.  Jump to the bottom of the post for more info, but first let me show you some of the wonder with which you'll surround yourself.

Some of the 126 buildings, from Rogers Park to Hyde Park, Garfield Park, downtown and all points in between,  are "walk-by" only, but the vast majority offer rare opportunities to experience some of Chicago's greatest spaces.  You can tour online, with photographs, the full roster of locations here, but among the highlights are the architectural office of Goettsch Partners, Perkins+Will, Adrian Smith+Gordon Gill, and VOA Associates.  There's Corpus Christ Church . . .

. . . the 1897 Grant Memorial AME Church, Dankmar Adler's last commission, the 1899 Isaiah Temple (now Ebeneezer Missionary Baptist church),The Chicago Motor Club and its 29-foot wide John Warner Norton mural, a historic courtroom at 26th and California, the Del Prado Hotel, Frank Lloyd Wright's Emil Bach house, and the interior of the auditorium space at the Abraham Lincoln Center, the Art Noveau murals of the Fine Arts Building, the spectacular Sears Roebuck Power House that is now the Power House High School . . .

.  . . an empty floor of the Inland Steel building, Alfred Caldwell's rooftop garden at Lake Point Tower . . .

 . . . the Martinez Funeral Home, Meyers Ace Hardware (the former Sunset Cafe where Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Earl 'Fatha' Hines played in the 1920's), the 1912 Monroe Building and new Pritzker Military Library, the private pool of Jens Jensen's Park Castle apartment building . . .

 . . . KAM Temple/Rainbow PUSH, the Art Moderne 2nd Federal Savings . . .

. . . Krueck and Sexton's Spertus Institute, the Gustavus F. Swift mansion . . .

. . . the Michigan Room overlooking Millennium Park in the University Club, Helmut Jahn's South Campus Chiller Plant at U of C, the 1893 Samuel Karpen mansion (now Welcome Inn Manor).

You get the idea.

As you might imagine, covering 126 sites all across the city, takes a lot of volunteers . . .

In order to make this weekend a success, we need many volunteers to play a variety of roles. Volunteering for OHC is simple and the benefits are pretty great.  We're looking for volunteers to provide visitor welcoming assistance at all OHC2011 sites. Volunteers will also help control admission to sites and track visitor attendance. You can volunteer for one 4 hour shift on either Saturday or Sunday, or both. Either way, volunteers receive a commemorative shirt, a discount at the CAF shop, a free walking tour pass and priority access to all OHC 2011 sites.

You can get more information on how you can volunteer here,  or contact openhousechicago's volunteer coordinator, Patrick Miner, via email.