To coincide with the exhibits, the Chicago Architecture Center installed bird-safe window treatments on its own glass facade last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t have this exhibition and then be causing harm at the same time,\u201d said Eve Fineman, the center\u2019s senior director of exhibitions, noting that the building on Wacker Drive has experienced bird collisions in the past.<\/p>\n
The exhibits will run through Jan. 3, aligning with peak tourism season and the fall bird migration period, said Alissa Anderson, principal of publications and exhibitions and partner at Studio Gang.<\/p>\n
Openlands worked with ecologists to identify ecosystems that represent remnant, restored and emerging natural areas across urban, suburban and rural landscapes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where the deciduous forests of the East, the grasslands of the West, hints of the coniferous forests from the North, and the Great Lakes all converge,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see because it\u2019s kind of hidden behind a very strong built environment \u2014 the great metropolis \u2014 but it is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Visitors](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CTC-L-CAC-dual-exhibits06.jpg\")
Visitors view photos on display for “Living Habitat” during a preview on June 9, 2026, of two new exhibits on wildlife conservation initiatives opening at the Chicago Architecture Center. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving Habitat\u201d showcases prairies, wetlands, dunes, woodlands and urban areas, emphasizing the ecological importance of habitats that are often overlooked, said Davidson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSubtlety does not mean unimportant,\u201d he said, referring to the region\u2019s prairies, wetlands and oak savannas.<\/p>\n
Davidson said he hopes the exhibit inspires visitors to explore these natural areas firsthand, noting that most, if not all, of the sites are open to the public.<\/p>\n
Each display features QR codes to audio recordings of each ecosystem using avian listening devices developed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers to capture the sounds of birds traveling through different habitats, said Openlands Vice President of External Affairs Huan Song.<\/p>\n
Devices were set up at restored ecological sites like Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie \u2014 the former home of a World War II-era military ammunition plant that\u2019s since been restored by the U.S. Forest Service and Openlands into a thriving prairie ecosystem that has seen the return of native bison populations<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n Acoustic sounds were also captured atop Studio Gang\u2019s rooftop garden and on top of the architecture center.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll hear trains, cars, along with the birds chirping, because that\u2019s the reality that we live in,\u201d Song said.<\/p>\n The recordings reinforce one of the exhibit\u2019s central themes: Nature and urban life are intertwined, she said.<\/p>\n The companion exhibit, \u201cFlyway City,\u201d builds on that message by focusing on the millions of migratory birds that pass through the Chicago region each year.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I hope that people feel as they leave Chicago\u2019s \u201cLiving Habitat\u201d and move into \u201cFlyway City\u201d is a sense of, \u2018wow, this place is a lot more important than I ever thought it was, and it\u2019s worth protecting,\u2019\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n Visitors entering \u201cFlyway City\u201d are greeted by digital renderings of three migratory bird species frequently involved in collisions in Chicago: the American woodcock, ovenbird and yellow-bellied sapsucker, Anderson said.<\/p>\n A curved blue curtain wraps around the exhibit space, mimicking migratory flight paths for birds traveling along the Mississippi Flyway. The material is made from construction scaffolding netting, which can also be used by homeowners to make windows safer for birds.<\/p>\n The exhibit highlights examples of bird-friendly architecture in cities such as Chicago and Santa Cruz while explaining the design principles behind collision prevention.<\/p>\n Bird-safe glass typically follows a \u201c2-by-2\u201d pattern, Anderson explained, with visual markers spaced\u00a0less than 2 inches apart vertically and horizontally to be recognized by even the smallest birds,\u00a0like hummingbirds. Effective bird-safe treatments generally extend through at least the first 100 feet of a building \u2014 roughly the height of Chicago\u2019s tree canopy.<\/p>\n The exhibit concludes with a call to action, encouraging visitors to sign a petition supporting a bird-friendly building ordinance<\/a> that would require bird-safe window designs in new Chicago construction projects.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do with the show is share this clear information and message about the issue of bird window collisions and how we can solve it,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cBut also to bring design and beauty and art to the issue, so that it can resonate for people on an emotional level as well as an intellectual level.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibits aim to challenge traditional distinctions between urban and natural environments.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything in nature exists in a gradient,\u201d Song said. \u201cYou can have a wet prairie, you can have grasses under trees. While people have boundaries that we\u2019ve artificially drawn, nature doesn\u2019t, and a lot of times you\u2019ll see all of this kind of intermixed with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to leave the Chicago region to experience nature,\u201d Davidson added.<\/p>\n Admission for the exhibits is priced at $15 or as an add-on to the river cruise and supports the center\u2019s educational programs, including funding an architecture curriculum and teen fellowship program through Chicago Public Schools, said Fineman.<\/p>\n For visitors already exploring Chicago through the center\u2019s river tours, she said the exhibits deepen people\u2019s understanding of buildings they see along their tour, including the St. Regis<\/a> and Aqua Tower,<\/a> both designed by Studio Gang, and examples of innovative bird-friendly architecture in Chicago\u2019s skyline.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hope is for people to understand that buildings and nature are not at odds with one another,\u201d Fineman said. \u201cWhen buildings are created in concert with nature, they\u2019re better in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Behind newly dotted glass windows at the Chicago Architecture Center along the Loop\u2019s bustling Wacker Drive, architects, environmentalists…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":856243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[2513,349550,349549,960,349548,5386,1818,308886],"class_list":["post-856242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-architecture","tag-bird-collision","tag-bird-friendly-buildings","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-architecture-center","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-prairie"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116722906377281048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}