Open House Chicago Returns Oct. 17-18 With 200+ Sites, 20 New Additions Like Blackhawks Ice Center

Open House Chicago, the free weekend that lets visitors wander into buildings normally closed to the public, comes back Oct. 17-18 with more than 200 sites spread across 30 neighborhoods, the Chicago Architecture Center announced.

This is the 16th year of the festival, which the architecture center describes as one of the largest architecture and urban exploration events in the world. No tickets or advance sign-up are needed. Visitors show up during open hours at whichever sites interest them over the two-day weekend and move through the city at their own pace.

The center says the festival draws more than 35,000 visitors annually, sending them into rooftop terraces, breweries, distilleries, churches, mosques, synagogues and other spaces rarely accessible to the general public.

Twenty sites are opening their doors for the first time this year. The list includes the Blackhawks Ice Center on the Near West Side, the Chicago Fire FC's Dear Chicago Experience Center in Streeterville, and the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum in Kenwood, set inside the blues musician's restored former residence. Also new is Smashed Plastic Record Pressing in Hermosa, a vinyl LP plant operating out of the old Hammond Organ factory building, and the Woman's Athletic Club on the Near North Side, described by organizers as the first athletic club for women established in the country.

Other first-time additions include the Windy City Bird Lab and Olson Kundig on the Near West Side, the Sears Sunken Garden in North Lawndale, TimeLine Theatre in Uptown, Broadway in Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre downtown, the Chinese American Service League's Kam Liu Building in Chinatown, St. Pauls United Church of Christ in Lincoln Park, the Albany-Carroll Arts Building and BandWith Chicago in Garfield Park, the Bronzeville Black Metropolis National Heritage Area Headquarters, and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park.

Two sites in Woodlawn, Oak Woods Cemetery and Narrow Bridge Arts Club, along with the Gary Comer Youth Center's Xchange Chicago program, are part of a new initiative called Built on Belief. The program, focused on the connections between architecture, religion and spirituality, has the three Woodlawn sites collaborating on exhibitions and programming meant to trace how faith communities have shaped the neighborhood over generations, according to the architecture center.

Returning sites include the Jazz Age Park Castle Condominiums in Rogers Park, Al-Sadiq Mosque in Bronzeville, Chicago Magic Lounge in Andersonville, Apollo's 2000 in Little Village, the 1889 Auditorium Theater in the Loop designed by Adler & Sullivan, the Avalon Regal Theater in South Shore, the Walt Disney House and Birthplace in Hermosa, and Electrical Audio in Avondale, the recording studio built by the late Steve Albini, which is back for its second year on the tour.

"Open House Chicago is a chance to discover our city's historic and contemporary architecture with an unprecedented level of access," Eleanor Esser Gorski, president and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center, said in a statement. "We hope that attendees strengthen their relationships with architectural spaces in their own neighborhoods, while also exploring diverse communities across the city and gaining confidence to participate more fully in conversations around architecture, design and civic life."

The architecture center has posted a full site list and neighborhood breakdown at openhousechicago.org, where visitors can start building an itinerary ahead of the Oct. 17-18 weekend.