Skip to main content

Chicago’s Famous Buildings

Fifth Edition

The latest edition of the original and best guide to Chicago architecture for tourists and residents.
 
One of the premier architectural cities of the United States—if not the world—Chicago boasts a breathtaking skyline, dozens of architectural monuments, and a historic legacy few other cities can equal. And it’s still growing! Since its first appearance in 1965, Chicago’s Famous Buildings has been the standard and bestselling guide to the city’s architectural riches. Now thoroughly revised and updated, this fifth edition will remain the leading pocket guide to some of the world’s greatest urban architecture.

Chicago’s Famous Buildings, fifth edition, completely updated and revised by Franz Schulze and Kevin Harrington, covers more than a decade of extraordinary new architecture and takes a fresh look back at the city’s classical legacy of Adler, Sullivan, Burnham, Root, Wright, and Mies van der Rohe. The authors have added many new descriptions and images of the most important projects in Chicago since the fourth edition, including the massive reconstruction of Grant Park around Frank Gehry’s Music Pavilion, and they cover as well the current status of older buildings—some destroyed, others, such as Burnham’s Reliance Building, marvelously restored and brought back to life. Chicago’s Famous Buildings, fifth edition, also includes expanded sections on the city’s future and the development of its diverse neighborhoods, presented with new maps to serve as an even more effective walking guide. A glossary of architectural terms, an extensive index, and more than sixty new photographs of both old and new buildings bring this guide completely up-to-date.

Authoritative, informative, and easier to use than ever before, this fifth edition of Chicago’s Famous Buildings will serve tourists and residents alike as the leading architectural guide to the treasures of this marvelous city.

Read excerpts.


358 pages | 206 halftones | 4-3/4 x 8 | © 2003

Architecture: American Architecture

Chicago and Illinois

Reviews

"Chicago’s Famous Buildings is the grandaddy of the city’s architectural guidebooks. Sought by architectural aficionados since its first edition in 1965, its latest incarnation is the fifth. Franz Schulze and Kevin Harrington, art and architectural historians, respectively, have edited the last two editions of this constantly evolving yet still essential volume. . . . Schulze and Harrington write engaging prose that weaves together many aspects essential to a building or neighborhood’s creation and interpretation. Their inclusive approach is appropriate for a city of Chicago’s enormous diversity."

Edward Keegan | Chicago Tribune

"Chicago’s Famous Buildings has long been the standard guide to the city’s most distinguished buildings. . . . Schulze and Harrington are unusually brisk, even saucy, writers, and their descriptions are commendably concrete and vivid. This is an admirable reworking of a book that’s at once a classic and a work in progress."

Benjamin Schwartz | Atlantic Monthly

“This is the one book on Chicago architecture that everyone should have.”

Chicago Tribune

Table of Contents

Preface to the Fifth Edition
Introduction
Orientation Maps

The Commercial Core
Away from the Core
The Suburbs
The Ghost City

Bibliography
Glossary
Credits
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press