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Chicago Architecture Foundation - Architecture of Culture & Commerce Walking Tour

Chicago, Illinois, United States

The Architecture Foundation entrance, in the Santa Fe building

The Chicago Architecture Foundation is a nonprofit group in Chicago that offers tours of Chicago. The foundation is located in the Santa Fe building, on S Michigan Ave, just between E Adams and E Jackson (directly across from the Art Institute of Chicago).

Inside, there is a gift store where you can purchase merchandise, as well as purchase tours. Tickets could also be purchased online, which could be a good idea during the busier times of the year.

The provided downtown city map

The walking tours use "listening devices" to allow everyone on the tour to be able to hear the guide, even if they are not speaking very loudly. The guide has a microphone headset, and everyone else has a radio receiver (that they wear around their neck) and an ear piece that allows them to hear the tour guide. As part of the tour, you will receive an "Architecture Walking Tour Map" (pictured here). This map is not really that useful for the tour, but I found it a very useful map of the downtown to use for the rest of my time in Chicago. I kept it in my back pocket, and used it to help get around the city.

This particular review focuses on the "Architecture of Commerce & Culture" walking tour.

Cost

At the time the walking tour of Chicago was taken, the cost was $15 for adults, or $12 for students/seniors.

The Tour

The dome in the Chicago Cultural Center - 78 E Washington St, Chicago, IL

The Palmer House - 17 East Monroe Street, Chicago, IL

This walking tour lasted about two hours. During the tour, we walked around 2km and stopped in front of 16 different buildings. We went inside five or six different buildings, including the two pictured here.

The tour was quite good, and definitely showed us a few buildings that we would not have known about otherwise. It was nice to be able to go inside some of the buildings to see the beautiful architecture. Although we technically could have done this without the tour, we would not have known about the buildings, and would not have known what to look for. The tour guide was able to tell us a number of interesting facts about each stop on the tour, and provided some nice background information.

These walking tours are really only as good as the tour guide. This time, our guide was pretty good, but last time (on a different tour), we had an excellent guide. For this tour, our guide didn't seem to know as much, and was constantly checking her notebook.

Also, I didn't think the tour had as much to do with "commerce and culture" as it did architecture. There was no discussion of the commerce/culture of the city, and we didn't see any commerce-related facilities (such as banks). We did take a look at macy's, but that's about it. This deficiency may be due to our tour guide and not the tour itself - the quality of the tour really is completely dependent on your guide.