Wrightwood 659 — Attraction in Lake View Township

We were very excited to visit because this gallery seems to be one of the more unique in Chicago and possibly the world. Our experience quickly soured.

While the staff were friendly they were almost too friendly. We saw on the gate outside that tickets were to be bought in advance. We scanned the QR code and were in the process of looking for tickets on the site when we were welcomed in. When we were welcomed in we were told to sit because, "buying tickets takes a while". When we sat down on the benches just outside the lobby we saw there was only one ticket available (there were two of us) in 30 minutes. At this point they already made my wife and I toss our $15 worth of coffee drinks that we barely got to touch. That would have been fine had there been a time-slot for us but there wasn't. We left angry to say the least. Don't invite us in and coerce us to throw away our drinks if you don't have space for us.

That's said, mask mandates, only open one day a week, not handling cash / payments from forcing people to pay online in advance and limited time slots is a throwback to May 2020. While I would have appreciated biosecurity protocols circa 2020, in 2023, the death rate from COVID has gone from around 3% to 0.06% and long-COVID understood be a treatable form of MCAS. The owner really needs to get over themselves.

Also reading about the guests that were told strollers weren't allowed until they were already on the second floor due to the "patina on the granite" doesn't surprise me at all with...

Dismayed to say the least! We were excited to find this beautiful gallery and looking forward to experiencing the exhibits and space. Unfortunately, they are not inclusive to families with young children. Our 2 and 4 year old are interested in art and want to engage with it as one would expect young children to do. We teach them to be respectful of the art but our 2 year old in particular is still learning not to run around and touch things. Their NO STROLLERS rule makes it especially difficult to experience the gallery as a family. The reasoning given to us by the Director of Operations was capricious. It would be very surprising that the architect would want to exclude families for fear of casting a patina of wear to the unfinished granite floors! Anyways, we made it through the 2nd Floor but left after having it confirmed that using our stroller was, in fact, disallowed and not some misunderstanding at the front desk. I’m assuming they’re ADA compliant, the elevators and wide berths supporting this assumption. I’m not sure how the feared marks left by strollers are any different than those left by...

Balkrishna Doshi -- Architecture for the People was showing when I was last at Wrightwood 659 and the space was transformed! It's a beautiful building and a destination on it's own created by the Japanese Architect Tadao Ando.

I had never heard of Doshi, who is an Indian Architect who gained world-wide fame and worked almost exclusively in India. The exhibit is laid out well and is easy to understand without too much reading. The organizers had reading in mind when developing the supporting materials that were handed out at the beginning of my visit. There were beautifully published and contained both an Exhibition Guide and a Timeline of Doshi's life. These contain copies of the panels on the walls and allows viewers to circulate without congregating to read descriptions of the different projects.

All in all an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon during the pandemic. They were very careful with social distancing and only allowed 24 people into the building. Don't miss this interesting exhibit through...