Fine Arts Building — Attraction in Chicago

Last night was the first time I had been to the Fine Arts Building since the 1990s to see WAIT WAIT DON'T TELL ME. During the taping several people got up and I assumed they were going to the bathroom. 75% of the way through the taping I decided to go to.

I got up, there were no employees or signs. I figured it was in the hallway so I went out the doors. A woman followed me. We looked around and there was no bathroom. So we walked down the stairs to the lobby. (I figured it's a theater there has to be a bathroom down there). The security/employees down there looked SHOCKED we were down there. When we asked for a bathroom they were like "Bathroom???". Like it was the oddest request of all time. One guy said "I can take you to the 6th floor to the bathroom". I was so confused, were all these people being taken to the 6th floor???

So the woman and I get in the elevator and then I realize they still have the vintage elevators (very cool old iron work and wood elevators) and he's the elevator operator. He takes us up and it's scary but kinda thrilling too. Then we arrive at 2 single use bathrooms and I'm thinking this is really weird.

Then the woman and I have to call for the operator to come back and get us. We ask him to drop us at the second floor balcony. He lets us off and we head back to the theater. The doors are locked! They have no handles. The woman and I don't know what to do. Again no one to ask.

I wind up knocking hoping SOMEONE will get the door. After a couple different knocking doors my stepfather pops out and lets us in.

After the show suddenly there is staff EVERYWHERE. I tell the guy who looks like the manager our story and he points behind a staircase IN the theatre where the bathroom is. When I try to tell him this will happen to people again he doesn't quite get it and just says "well we don't want these doors opening and closing during the show"

Anyway - bottom line. I was blonde when I had hair and it's really cool the Fine Arts Building has their vintage elevators and...

BEWARE. (Dec 16, 2023) happened a while back but had a fairly traumatizing experience here when the elevator attendant told me and my friends (one of them has a handicap disability with her back) to walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator all because he didn't want to do his job which just requires him to sit in that chair miserably clicking buttons. When I addressed him for his rudeness, he got up from his chair and got in my face and started to yell at me, a witness saw this and intervened and he backed down and went back into the elevator. When I went to make a report against him the two security guards up front (one male and one female) did not take my report seriously and I requested a paper report (which they begrudgingly handed to me to get me to leave and probably then tear up). Ruined the whole experience for me and my friends who just wanted to enjoy the history of the building. They need to do better with the types of people they hire both security and elevator attendant. That elevator attendant is the one in the picture below.

I meant to write this review a lot earlier but I forgot and today I had time. My personal opinion if this man was that comfortable getting aggressive towards me and my friend group (4 young ladies), I wonder how many other people he may have spoken to like that that never came forward...

I liked this place. It's clear that electricity is aftermarket, tho.

Might be the last manually operated elevator in the city. Does make me nervous when it moves when adding or subtracting any weight, though.

A bit unnerving and pretty ugly the way electricity updates (?) were executed over the elevators). The grandfather clause is alive and well. It's about 9 floors tall with wide-open stairways (looks unique but a bad idea, fire-wise, they act like a chimney, see Our Lady of Angels fire), glass elevator shafts (same problem if there's a fire), and sprinkler system? No, i don't see anything like that.

Ignore Maps if it says anything other than Adams street off the brown line. Or, i think the art museum subway on red line would be there, too. FA building is a few blocks away from there.

There is a nice bookstore that used to have a cat. It smells really bad in there, tho. Even though they painted. Yucky. Couldn't figure out if the stupid thing sprayed all over the place, or what. If you have allergies, you'll probably remember...