The Art Institute of Chicago is considering a new wing to its eastern edge, where the Beaux Arts Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room by Adler & Sullivan is sited. Preservation groups are now concerned the historic, 5,700-square-foot interior housed within the museum may be in jeapordy.
The Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room measures 2-stories, and approximately 100-feet by 75-feet in plan. It was completed in 1894 by Louis Sullivan, Dankmar Adler, and Louis Healy of Healy & Millet. The gilded space features columns with ornament designed by Sullivan and Healy, stained-glass skylights, and organic wall stenciling with a total of 52 distinct hues of gold, green, and yellow.
“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 Art Institute said in a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times. “If our campus evolution did impact the Trading Room, our first priority would be to work with partners to find a new location for the space. No decisions have been made at this time.”
Preservation Chicago recently listed the preserved interior on its annual list of the city’s most in danger historic buildings. Another historic space at the Art Institute of Chicago, McKinlock Court, also stands in the way of the proposed renovation.
In 1924, Coolidge and Hodgdon designed the McKinlock Court Garden and Memorial Building as an addition to the original Allerton Building, the Art Institute’s first building. McKinlock Court is today one of the museum’s few remaining public gardens and outdoor spaces. Per Preservation Chicago, “This magnificent courtyard may be significantly altered or even destroyed for the newly proposed addition to The Art Institute of Chicago.”
As for the Trading Room, it was relocated in 1972 from the old Chicago Stock Exchange building on LaSalle Street to the Art Institute in a move that was facilitated by John Vinci and Lawrence Kenney of Vinci-Kenney Architects.
Architectural photographer Richard Nickel was killed when the old Chicago Stock Exchange building came down, a moment that bolstered the historic preservation movement worldwide on a par with the demolition of New York Penn Station, and other irreparable losses.
In 2024, the Art Institute of Chicago received its largest financial gift to date, a $75 million donation to go toward a comprehensive master plan for its campus led by Barozzi Veiga, culminating in this latest announcement regarding the expansion.
In lieu of the Art Institute’s potential expansion proposal, Preservation Chicago suggested building “a new wing over the sunken railroad tracks which the museum wraps around,” thereby covering the railroad tracks and saving the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room and McKinlock Court.
Preservation Chicago has started a petition to save the Trading Room. The campaign is addressed to the Chicago City Council and Art Institute of Chicago.
According to Preservation Chicago, “the Art Institute of Chicago appears to no longer appreciate or value the precious legacy with which they have been entrusted.”
Other buildings on Preservation Chicago’s 2026 list of threatened buildings are the Chicago Loop Synagogue; St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic School and Church, attended by Pope Leo XIV; Chicago River Bridges and Tender Houses; Chicago’s Labor Union Halls; South Park Terrace; the Yukon Building; and the St. Mark Roman Catholic Church campus.
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