Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies

While some buildings receive more media attention, few are as powerfully effective on so many levels as the new home of Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, opened at the end of 2007. Built in modest scale befitting its place on the historic southern stretch of Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park, this shimmering, multifaceted glass-walled ten-story building commands the attention of a building ten times its size. From a distance, on the east side of the park on the lakefront path, its glass wall, constructed of 726 windows in 556 different shapes, looks like water, a liquid building, in harmony with the flows of Buckingham Fountain. Up close, the building invites visitors into its galleries and libraries in a manner that its more fortress-like predecessor never did. And once inside! The open glass atriums, the dramatic views and that glass wall, now seen from the other side as it bends light in infinite ways, together create one of the city’s great interior spaces. To the architects, Krueck & Sexton Architects, and to the Institute itself, we say mazel tov!

610 S. Michigan
(312)322-1700
spertus.edu

Audience choice
Trump International Hotel 
401 N. Wabash
(877)458-7867

Best of Chicago 2008

Grant Park

After the Obama rally, throngs of people walked down Michigan Avenue. Crowds danced and sang in front of the Art Institute, using drums and singing “Oh, Oh, Obama.” Throughout the walk you could see young people of all races singing and dancing together. Periodically you’d hear the crowds chanting “Obama, Obama!” At this moment, we stood in the crux of history, witnessing Chicago’s transformation from being the site of the riots of 1968 to being a place where the crowds jubilantly celebrated and embraced an African-American President. The city with one of the worst histories of racial barriers became the city to welcome in change. Grant Park had a new meaning.

Best of Chicago 2008