World Travel with Bob: Chicago

Visiting the "Windy City"

For some time, we've been interested in learning more about Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes. Wright lived and worked in Chicago from 1887 to the early 1900s. Wright apprenticed with other Chicago architects and, ultimately, opened his own architectural practice in Oak Park.

Once a year, the non-profit Frank Lloyd Wright Trust sponsors a “Wright Plus” housewalk in Chicago’s Oak Park neighborhood. This is a rare opportunity to tour the interior of eight private residences, three designed by Wright, and five by his contemporaries. Several of the homes reflected the Prairie Style architecture of the early 1900s.

If you’re interested in learning more about this house tour, there is an excellent article describing the 2023 tour in the Oak Park Journal. We opted for a higher priced “Fast Pass” ticket as that permitted a ticket holder to enter a house with reduced wait time. We later learned that at one home, the entry line for regular ticket holders exceeded an hour. We started our tour at 9am, stopped for a box lunch that was available from the tour organizers and were finished by 2pm.

Here are a few photos of the exterior of the houses we visited. Note that there are no interior photos as these are private homes.

Furbeck House, Designed by Wright in 1897

Wright Home and Office, Designed by Wright in 1897

Gale House, Designed by Wright in 1892

Roberts House, Designed by E.E. Roberts in 1870

Heurtley House, Designed by Wright 1902

With four full days in Chicago, we were able to explore the city. Highlights included:

Chicago River architectural boat tour - This a great way to view and learn about the many downtown buildings and architectural style of each.
Navy Pier - There are several attractions to view here, such as the Children’s Museum, Centennial Ferris Wheel, as well as many shopping and dining opportunities.
Art Institute of Chicago - We were able to view the Dali and Van Gogh special exhibits. This museum is very large and can take several days to explore.
Millennium Park - This is the home of “Cloud Gate” or “The Bean,” a gleaming chrome sculpture by Anish Kapoor. This park also is home to the Frank Gehry designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
Chicago Cultural Center - The two beautiful Tiffany stained glass domes are in the Center and worth a peek.
Willis Tower (aka Sears Tower) - This building is 1,451 feet tall. We rode the elevator to the 103 floor Skydeck for an outstanding view of Chicago. On the Skydeck, visitors can stand on a glass ledge and view the ground under their feet - safe but a bit scary for those with height fears.
Richard Driehaus Museum - Driehaus rescued and restored the gilded-age Nickerson mansion, also known as “The Marble Palace.” An excellent background video is available for viewing. The museum includes items from Driehaus’ art collection.
Dining: We enjoyed our dinners at The Purple Pig, The Gage, and Volare Restaurant. We also stopped for a Chicago deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s. The Purple Pig was our favorite location and we had dinner there twice. This restaurant focuses on shared plates. We particularly enjoyed sharing over two dinners, the roasted bone marrow, pork and bacon pate, duck croquettes, ravioletto, apple endive salad, milk braised Berkshire pork shoulder and mango mousse dessert. Jimmy Bannos, the chef at The Purple Pig was a James Beard Rising Star Chef winner in 2014.

The home base for our Chicago visit was the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Located on the Chicago River, it was about a mile or less from any visited site or dining destination.

For traveling between downtown Chicago and Oak Park, we rode the CTA elevated Green Line train. A one-way ride took about 25 minutes and a one-day CTA pass was $5.