You probably know the Chicago Architecture Foundation for its famous boat tours ($46) that leave from the river at Michigan Ave. Or from its bus tours or skyscraper walking tours – all well worth their price (from $20 to $55). But did you know CAF also hosts free exhibits daily in its onsite galleries that cover renowned local structures? The...

The Rookery Building is another skyscraper that makes architecture buffs all weak-kneed. Burnham and Root built it in 1888, and Frank Lloyd Wright remodeled the atrium 19 years later. Its magic is that while it looks like an imposing fortress on the outside, its interior is just the opposite – as bright and airy as a spring daisy. You can...

Take a close look when passing by the gothic Tribune Tower, and you’ll chunks of the Taj Mahal, Parthenon, Great Pyramid, and 140 or so other famous structures embedded in the lower walls. The fragments are there thanks to Colonel Robert McCormick, the Chicago Tribune’s eccentric owner in the early 1900s, who asked his reporters to send rocks from famous...

Chicago’s loftiest building provides one helluva view from its 103rd-floor Skydeck. Step onto the glass-floored Ledge for a feeling of mid-air suspension and stomach-lurching view straight down. Look outward and you can see over four states (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan). For almost 25 years this was the world’s tallest skyscraper, but then behemoths in China, Dubai and elsewhere shot past...