Art Institute Expansion Could Displace Stock Exchange

One of Chicago architecture’s most dramatic rescue stories could face another relocation.

The Art Institute of Chicago is weighing expansion plans that could force the removal of the historic Chicago Stock Exchange trading room, the ornate two-level space designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and reconstructed inside the museum nearly half a century ago at 111 South Michigan Avenue, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Museum officials confirmed this week that the trading room — in the Art Institute’s Columbus Drive wing — sits in an area being studied for potential gallery expansion.

“As we have assessed which part of our campus has the most potential for expansion, the east side of the building — where the Trading Room is located — represents the area where gallery space could increase the most,” the museum said in a statement to the publication. The Art Institute added that if the project affects the space, its “first priority” would be finding a new home for the room in partnership with preservation groups.

No decisions have been made, the museum said.

Preservation Chicago included the trading room on its annual “Chicago 7” list of the city’s most endangered historic places.

The 5,700-square-foot space once served as the centerpiece of the Chicago Stock Exchange Building at 30 North LaSalle Street, an architectural landmark completed in 1894. The building was demolished in 1972 during a wave of downtown redevelopment, but architect John Vinci led a painstaking effort to salvage the trading floor before the wrecking ball arrived, according to the outlet.

Vinci’s team dismantled the room piece by piece and reassembled it at the Art Institute, where it opened to the public in 1977. Today the richly ornamented space doubles as both an exhibit and an event venue.

The Art Institute began exploring major campus expansion plans following a $75 million gift from collectors Aaron Fleischman, a museum trustee, and Lin Lougheed in 2024, according to the outlet. The donation is intended to help fund new exhibition spaces and other improvements.

Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller said those ambitions should not come at the expense of the trading room or other historic spaces.

“We understand the need for these institutions to grow and for their collections to be exhibited,” Miller said. “But these things can occur without damaging some of the really sacred and much-beloved spaces at the Art Institute.”

Miller suggested the museum instead consider building above the nearby sunken Metra tracks and busway that divide the Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive portions of the campus.

The preservation group’s endangered list also flagged the Art Institute’s McKinlock Court courtyard, though museum officials said the Art Institute does not have plans currently to alter the space.— Eric Weilbacher