Each year, Chicago’s most architecturally inclined residents crisscross the city to check out some of the city’s most intriguing and vaunted buildings!

From downtown’s soaring steel and glass skyscrapers to the iconic residential greystone, there are impressive, beautiful, and revolutionary buildings practically everywhere you look. Each fall, the Chicago Architecture Center celebrates the city’s many architectural treasures both big and small with Open House Chicago, the two-day festival which lets opens many of these buildings for the public to explore for free!

On December 3, 1818, Illinois became the 21st state in the union. You might know about the Prairie State’s most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln, but did you know these 5 facts about Illinois music?

Chicago is world-renowned for its architecture. Take a walk around the city, and chances are that you’ll encounter at least a few fantastic buildings. But did you know that Chicago’s architectural legacy has inspired music, too?

Concert halls today are so architecturally innovative that the buildings themselves draw visitors. The venues on this list are so spectacular, they’ll be sure to have you checking to see just how many more vacation days you have left.

The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester is playing music from the renaissance to the present, including works by Beethoven and Wagner and a new piece by German composer Wolfgang Rihm.