Edward Keegan: What kind of year has it been for Chicago architecture?

In Chicago architecture, there’s always something new, always something to look forward to. But looking back, 2024 was a middling year — no great new buildings came online, no local luminary received significant new acclaim, but the work of constantly creating the city continued apace.

Google began its remodeling of the Thompson Center without disclosing much about the actual scope of work. An unexpected highlight has been the revelation of the building’s structural frame as the entire glass curtain wall has been removed. Alas, the exposure of the building’s structural gymnastics promises to be fleeting as the renovation continues. But this short-term architectural sugar rush hardly makes up for the lack of transparency as to what’s happening with the building’s renovation; Google’s two released renderings are not enough for a project of this importance.

As a reminder that architecture just doesn’t happen fast: It has been more than 3½ years since Helmut Jahn’s death, and his last buildings continue to come online. In addition to his 1000M tower in the South Loop, the Pritzker Military Archives Center (PMAC) opened its architecturally ambitious new facility in Kenosha. The striking red structure sits in a field appearing as a 21st century McCormick Reaper in the southeastern Wisconsin landscape. The black and red, steel-and-glass structure can be considered a bookend to Jahn’s career, which started with McCormick Place. While PMAC continues to move its archives into the stunning building, the exhibition space needs some attention to meet the high standard presented by the architecture.

While the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park has been pushed back to 2026, the complex’s distinctive tower topped out in the summer. At year’s end, much of the stone cladding on the faceted tower is already in place, and it’s now possible to fully grasp the structure’s 225-foot-tall impact on the South Side skyline.

Change is a constant at our cultural institutions. The Shedd Aquarium is sporting big new tanks under the museum’s iconic dome. Designed by Valerio Dewalt Train, the project updates the iconic room’s fish tanks — one saltwater, one freshwater — with a hint of the old designs to be found in the crown above them.

Even more subtle (and all too easy to miss) are the updated Korean galleries at the Art Institute. Just steps off of the main thoroughfare beyond the main stair hall inside the Michigan Avenue entrance, locally based Future Firm has performed minimalist magic to put the emphasis on the displays.

We bid farewell this year to Skidmore Owings & Merrill’s postmodern Tribune Freedom Center at Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street to make way for the still-evolving design for a casino by Bally’s. None of the images for the casino promises high expectations for the architecture. When you’re throwing around casino money, there should be enough to produce better design.

The Chicago Bears went nomad this year as their stadium plans moved from Arlington Heights to Burnham Park and now possibly to the old Michael Reese Hospital site in Bronzeville. While it’s been encouraging to hear that the McCaskey family is willing to invest substantial millions in a new home, it’s no surprise that it also is looking for quite a lot of public investment (including public land in the case of the Burnham Park site) as well.

The Chicago White Sox released designs for a new home in the South Loop shortly before the start of the team’s worst season ever on the field. Developer Related Midwest even built a ball field on the site to try to create excitement among lawmakers for public funding, but at year’s end, the project’s prospects are quite unclear, especially as the Bears would like to dip into our civic coffers as well.

And now the Chicago Fire are eying a piece of The 78 for their 25,000-seat soccer stadium. We can expect 2025 to be one of serious decision-making at this long-vacant site.

The return of NASCAR for a second-year run through the streets of Grant Park in July put our downtown infrastructure through a test for another year. Chicago’s architecture provides a stunning backdrop for a gritty racing series whose traditional base has been centered in nonurban areas of the Southeast. The organizers were able to shave six days off their schedule of traffic delays compared with the year before, but the event will always face criticism for the time it takes over a large swath of Grant Park during the summer (a total of 19 days in 2024).

It would be nice to see the NASCAR race become an annual event, but the base contract ends in 2025 (with options for two additional years). If you haven’t been, this next year is the time to go.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of architecture, has deep Chicago roots, as it’s funded by Chicago’s Pritzker family. Since its inception in 1979, we’ve often played host to its yearly award ceremony. The prize returned home in May when Riken Yamamoto of Japan received the award at the Art Institute of Chicago. Yamamoto played to the local audience while greeting each of the 300 attendees following the ceremony by mentioning that Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga had come to us from his own family’s city of Yokohama.

So, 2024. A middling year by Chicago’s high architectural standards. But the city still offers its talented crop of architects more challenges that will come into better sight in the new year. Here’s to 2025.

Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan’s biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.

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