One of the many gems of Chicago is the Chicago Cultural Center. Formerly the city's public library (which has since moved to more spacious but less glorious quarters, the Cultural Center is an architectural marvel that includes a Tiffany stained glass dome and the more recent addition of a green roof. It offers multiple art exhibits at any given time as well as a concert series and spaces, such as the one I'm sitting in now, for people to gather, read, write, or take advantage of the free WiFi.
Completed in 1897 as Chicago's first central public library, the building was designed to impress and to prove that Chicago had grown into a sophisticated metropolis. The country's top architects and craftsmen used the most sumptuous materials, such as rare imported marbles, polished brass, fine hardwoods, and mosaics of Favrile glass, mother-of-pearl and colored stone, to create an architectural showplace. Located on the south side of the building, the world's largest stained glass Tiffany dome ― 38 feet in diameter with some 30,000 pieces of glass ― was restored to its original splendor in 2008. On the north side of the building is a 40-foot-diameter dome with some 50,000 pieces of glass in an intricate Renaissance pattern, designed by Healy & Millet.
My children and I enjoy the Cultural Center on our visits to Chicago to see family, and the photos give you a sense of its grandeur and appeal.