History of the Art Institute postdated 1907. Note that Michigan Avenue is unpaved. The Art Institute of Chicago opened as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts on May 24, 1879, and changed to its current name on December 23, 1882. It was originally established as both a school and museum, and stood on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street, where it rented space. The Art Institute, which moved there at the time it changed names, originally leased and later purchased the space. With the coming of the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition and its need for a new home for its expanding collection and growing student body, the Art Institute's trustees negotiated for a new structure at what has come to be the current building. '' The new building was funded by the sale of the Van Buren Street building to the Chicago Club for
$ 265,000, by donation of the land by the
Chicago Park District, by $120,000 public subscription, and by $200,000 contribution of the Fair Corporation in cooperation with the Exposition. Upon his death in 1905, lumber merchant Benjamin Franklin Ferguson bequeathed almost $1 million () for the purpose of establishing a public sculpture fund to be administered by the Art Institute. The first gift from this memorial fund was the
Fountain of the Great Lakes, which was commissioned in 1907.
Architecture The current building is a classical
Beaux-Arts building, by
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of
Boston, Massachusetts. The building has a grand
Italian Renaissance facade with a pedimented 5-
bayed central section that protrudes forward from the 7-bayed wings on either side. The
arcaded entry
loggia is topped by three grand
palladian arches that are separated by
Corinthian half-
columns. It was built to seat an audience of 425. The Grand Staircase was completed in 1910. However, the architectural ornamentation of the neighboring gallery continued intermittently until 1929 without ever being completed. Plans for a great dome over this staircase were abandoned when proper financing never arose. In 1916, Gunsaulus Hall was built by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge as a two-story bridge addition spanning the
Illinois Central Railroad tracks behind the original building. Today, this court is open for dining during summer months and still contains the
Carl Milles bronze fountain in its center. was redesigned (further redesign continued in 1959). After the redesign Blackstone Hall no longer exhibited the Greek and Roman, Renaissance and modern sculptures. Now the Hall is partitioned into several galleries. Also in 1958, the Benjamin F. Ferguson Memorial Building was constructed by Holabird & Root & Burgee to accommodate administrative and curatorial offices, which relieved space in the existing buildings for more gallery space. In 1960, the Stanley McCormick Memorial Court (north garden) was constructed by Holabird & Root & Burgee. The south garden was constructed in 1965, when the
Fountain of the Great Lakes was moved and reinstalled.
Dan Kiley designed the South garden. In 1962, The Morton Wing was added south of the central building to provide additional exhibition space and galleries. This balanced the Ferguson building by restoring symmetry. In the 1970s, the growth of the school and visitor attendance necessitated the Rubloff Building to accommodate new studios, classrooms, and a film center for the school, and new public spaces for the museum. The
Adler & Sullivan-designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building (1893–1972) Trading Room was salvaged from demolition and installed in the Columbus Drive Addition in 1977. This building fragment, which includes
Louis Sullivan's exquisite stenciling, is described as the "
Wailing Wall of Chicago preservationists".
Modern Wing The Modern Wing, opened in 2009, was designed by
Renzo Piano and funded in part by
Pat Ryan. It increases the museum's gallery space by 30 percent by adding of new galleries, and includes the Ryan Education Center on the first floor. The new building incorporates cutting-edge
green technologies, such as a modern sunshade to filter daylight. The sunshade, dubbed "The Flying Carpet", is made of white
extruded aluminum and is linked to the lighting system to adjust and compensate for
incandescent fixtures. The
Nichols Bridgeway, a 625-foot (190 m) pedestrian bridge also designed by Piano, links the building to
Millennium Park.
Entrance Flanking the exterior Michigan Avenue entrance stairs are
two bronze lions by sculptor
Edward Kemeys that were a gift from a Mrs. Henry Field for the Art Institute's opening at its current location in 1893. Although the lions have no official names, the sculptor designated the lions by their poses as "stands in an attitude of defiance" (south lion) and "on the prowl" (north lion). These lions, along with those pairs in front of the
New York Public Library Main Branch on
Fifth Avenue and the pair in the grand staircase of the
Boston Public Library's Central Library, are part of an
Italian Renaissance revival by 19th-century
Romantic artists. Guardian lions had been an important architectural theme of the World Columbian Exposition, where six pairs guarded the entrance of the
Palace of Fine Arts. Kemeys had sculpted one of these pairs, which may have served as his model for the Art Institute lions. The lions were moved back toward the museum in 1909–10 in conjunction with the widening of Michigan Avenue and the addition of a
balustrade and
terrace to the south, west and north sides of the building. When a Chicago sports team makes their league's playoffs, the lions are frequently dressed in that team's uniform. This has been done for the
Chicago White Sox in 2005, the
Chicago Bears in 1986 and 2007, the
Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, and the
Chicago Cubs in 2016. ==Notes==