The University of Chicago Press, in partnership with the City of  Chicago’s Mayor’s Office of Special Events, announces the launch of  a new lecture series -

Great Chicago Places and Spaces:
Conversations Within Communities.

Great Chicago Places and Spaces 
offers more than 200 FREE tours May 17-18!  

"Gay by Design" will provide tours of two forward-thinking buildings designed specifically for Chicago’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) community:  the first green LGBT community center - Center on Halsted - and an architecturally-driven entertainment space - Sidetrack nightclub.
This marks the first time that GCPS has visited specifically gay spaces.

The Center on Halsted- - Chicago's new, official, and green-building LGBT community center - - is considered a link to all facets of the community. The Center also offers support networks and programming that
meet the cultural, emotional, social, educational and recreational needs of LGBT persons and their allies.

Sidetrack often functions as an unofficial town hall for Chicago's LGBT community and is a meeting point for LGBT people from around the world.
The design concentrates on making people feel welcome and comfortable,
and on accommodating the flow of people through linked spaces that,
individually, can maintain separate events. In particular, the glass
bar, built in 1999, is an interior courtyard that was one of the first
open LGBT bar spaces in the U.S., signaling a greater integration of the
LGBT communities into the mainstream.


During the tour "Gay by Design," GCPS attendees will walk between the
two venues and experience the North Halsted Streetscape, which was
designed in 1997 to celebrate the first officially designated LGBT
neighborhood (Boystown) in the U.S., and perhaps the world. The streetscape was
dedicated by Chicago Mayor Daley on November 14, 1998.

A complete list all of tours is available online.

Registration and participants can sign up the ‘day of’ for most tours.  Day-of registration begins at
7:30 a.m., Saturday and Sunday at event headquarters, the ArchiCenter (224 South Michigan Avenue).
For more information call (312) 744-3315

The Best of Gay Chicago