Moving Marina City to North Michigan for Open House Chicago 2012

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For competent photographers it would just be a bad shot.  For me, it's fun with reflections.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation held a press conference this morning to herald this weekend's Open House 2012, the amazing event that opens up over 150 Chicago buildings and places many not usually accessible,  to the public.

One spectacular addition this year is the top floor of Shaw, Metz's 1962 United of America  - now Kemper - Building, at State and Wacker, which was the location for CAF's Wednesday press event.  Its Club on 39, long forgotten, was once one of Chicago's "Lofty View" fine dining options  For the first time in decades, the top floor has been been re-opened for Open House Chicago.  Some of the windows may bit a bit clouded, but the views from the 500+-foot-high structure remain spectacular.

Check out all the great locations at  Open House Chicago 2012.

Amazing Open House Chicago 2012 Looking for a Thousand Good Women (And Men)

Corpus Christi Church (click images for larger view)

The full schedule of 150 locations has been published for the 2012 edition of Open House Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Foundation's remarkable two day point of entry to . . .

. . . over 150 of the city’s great places and spaces.  Explore repurposed mansions, hidden rooms, sacred spaces, private clubs, iconic theatres, hotels, community murals and more—all for free.

As you can imagine, such an event takes a lot of planning, and a lot of help.  Specifically, the CAF has put out the call for volunteers.  Shifts are four hours, either/and Saturday and Sunday, October 13th and 14th.  You must be at least 18, and you must wear clothes.

In addition to the satisfaction of a job well-done for a great event, being a volunteer has its benefits:

• Priority access at all OHC sites for you and a companion
• 50% off a CAF membership
• Member discount at CAF shop for the week following OHC
• OHC T-shirt and lanyard souvenirs
• Two free CAF walking tour passes

Get all the details and sign up on-line here.

The site list is remarkable, from downtown to all across the city, with a large roster of "hidden gems" not usually open to the general public.  To cite just one example, you can visit the 41st observation deck of the 1962 Shaw, Metz designed United of America/Unitrin/Kemper Building - open for the first time in nearly 40 years - and, unlike the guys in the photograph above, you can actually enjoy it from the inside.

You can also visit the offices of such firms as Goettsch Partners, Holabird and Root, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, Murphy/Jahn, Perkins+Will, SOM, Thornton Tomasetti, VOA, Wheeler Kearns, and Wright Heerema.  You can see Dankmar Adler's last commission, Isaiah Temple, now  Ebeneezer Missionary Baptist Church, get inside the Germania Club, the Powhatan Apartments, Apollo's 2000 (the former Marshall Square Theater), Jens Jensen's Park Castle, and the historic Agudas Achim North Shore Congregation.  You can visit the Lohan Associates designed Police Headquarters, and go directly to (Cook County) Jail.

Ogden School, Nagle/Hartray Architecture

And lest you think the architecture of today is being slighted, you can see Jeanne Gang's Kam Liu Building in Chinatown and Columbia College Media Production Center , Helmut Jahn's State Street Village at IIT, Farr Associates, Christy Webber Landscapes, Nagle Hartray's Ogden School, Williams and Tsien's Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at U of C, Krueck and Sexton's Spertus Institute, Rem Koolhaas's Campus Center at IIT, and John Ronan's Poetry Foundation and South Shore International College Prep, to name just a few.

Poetry Foundation, John Ronan Architects

This is an absolutely fantastic event, and you can become a part of it here.

Planes and Towers, Spectated

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the drama of this shot is via auto adjust, but it looks so good I couldn't resist.