Japanese architect Tadao Ando has turned a former brick apartment building in Chicago into an architecture-focused exhibition center more than 35,000 sqft in size.
The four-story building, completed in 1929 in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, is dedicated to exhibitions of architecture and socially engaged art.
The interior of the apartment building was removed allowing Ando to create a concrete staircase that wraps around a pillar, providing the primary mode of entry into the atrium.
Several floors are dedicated to Ando’s projects in Japan, such as his Church of the Light in Ibaraki as well as various works on the Japanese island of Naoshima, including Benesse Art Site.
Wrightwood 659 is a private, non-commercial initiative envisioned as an integral part of the cultural and civic fabric of Chicago, as well as a new kind of arts space and cultural resource.
