Art Institute of Chicago
Four paintings you've seen your whole life — Nighthawks, La Grande Jatte, The Old Guitarist, American Gothic — hang in the same building.
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Founded in 1879 and built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, this is the second-largest art museum in the US, after the Met. Nearly 300,000 works across 11 curatorial departments, plus more than 30 special exhibitions a year. The 2009 Modern Wing by Renzo Piano pushed the total footprint to nearly one million square feet.
What to look for
- Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — a pointillist canvas that reads completely differently from two inches away than from across the room
- Edward Hopper's Nighthawks alongside Grant Wood's American Gothic, two works that rarely disappoint in person
- The building's original Beaux-Arts shell, constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and expanded ever since
Sits in Grant Park on Michigan Avenue; the land is publicly owned by the city of Chicago, so the surrounding park stays open and accessible.
Art Institute of Chicago is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Chicago, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Chicago pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Chicago
- Willis TowerIt held the world's tallest title for nearly 25 years after opening in 1973 — and the Skydeck is still the highest observation deck in the United States.
- John Hancock Center (875 N Michigan Ave)A moving platform pivots you 30 degrees outward over the Magnificent Mile — 1,128 feet of nothing beneath your feet.
- Aon CenterWhen it opened in 1973 as "Big Stan," this 83-floor tower was the fourth-tallest building on Earth — and clad entirely in marble.
- United CenterThe Bulls hardwood floor is literally assembled over the Blackhawks ice and taken apart game by game — two teams, one frozen surface, shared by puzzle.
- Soldier FieldThe NFL's oldest stadium lost its National Historic Landmark status because of the renovation meant to save it.
- Home Insurance Building SiteChicago halted construction mid-job — city officials had never seen a steel skeleton carry a building instead of its own walls and stopped work to investigate its safety.