The Auditorium Building in Chicago is one of the best-known designs of Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler. Completed in 1889, the building is located at the northwest corner of South Michigan Avenue and Congress Street (now Ida B. Wells Drive). The building was designed to be a multi-use complex, including offices, a theater, and a hotel. As a young apprentice, Frank Lloyd Wright worked on some of the interior design. In order to subsidize the cost of a theater the developer, Ferdinand Wythe Peck, decided to include an income-generating luxury hotel and business offices. The idea of a mixed-use structure was still a fairly new idea. Peck’s vision was difficult to fulfill. The hotel and offices could not financially support the theater. In the 1940s, the Auditorium was taken over by the City of Chicago and used as a World War II officers’ center. By 1945, the space had deteriorated, suffering significant damage to Sullivan’s plaster ornamentation. To prevent it from being demolished, Roosevelt University acquired the building but lacked the funds to restore it until 1963 when an Auditorium Theatre Council was formed to raise money for its restoration. Under the direction of architect Harry Weese, the theater was beautifully restored and reopened in 1967.

Courtesy The Culinary Institute of America Menu Collection.