A major donation has been made for a new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago at 111 S Michigan Avenue in The Loop. Located within Grant Park, the globally recognized museum is one nation’s largest and has been voted as one of the best in the world multiple years in a row. Now a $75 million donation will take it to the next level.
View of Art Institute Main Building after opening via Chicagology
Established in 1879 as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, the museum moved around along Michigan Avenue before taking its current name in 1882. Soon after, the museum made its final move to its current main building in 1893 after it was used for the Columbian Exposition. Since then it has grown to nearly one-million square-feet in size.
View of Art Institute campus via Google maps
The museum’s most recent addition was the Renzo Piano-designed modern wing which opened in 2009, adding around 264,000 square-feet of space to the campus. Now benefactors Aaron Fleischman and Lin Lougheed have donated the money for a new wing dedicated to 19th century, modern, and contemporary art that will don their names.
Building analysis of the Art Institute Modern Wing by Cal Poly
While we do know the new space will be within the existing campus, its final location is unknown and design is yet to be started. Currently the museum has expanded as far as it can towards all of its main bounding streets on all four sides, however the potential to cap the rail tracks that slice the site in half does remain.
No timeline has been revealed. For reference, the 2009 modern wing was built for $294 million and took around nine years to develop, design, and build.
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I would be great to see the new space constructed over the Metra tracks! I hope this is considered in the design phase.
According to the press release, they mentioned incorporating views of Millennium Park. However, I’m not sure $75 mil. is enough to build over the tracks. My guess is that they replace the SAIC building (on Columbus).
Over thet tracks (totally cool!) or not, the $75 million is likely just the major donation that covers some portion of the total construction costs.