The logo of MLA ’14, featured iconic skyscrapers and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture. Here is a sampling of what is new in Chicago for MLA ’19.
- In August 2018, Chicago Architecture Foundation was expanded and renamed the Chicago Architecture Center. The center is a destination in itself and the information point for docent-led tours.
- Maggie Daley Park was designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and named after Maggie Daley, a former first lady of Chicago, who died of cancer in 2011. It is east of Millennium Park and connected by the BP Pedestrian Bridge.
- Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, formerly the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, is the first-ever “translational” research hospital. Visitors can see the 1st and 10th floor main lobby areas without prior arrangement.
Some new museums have arrived too. They include American Writers Museum (March 2017) and Chicago Music Hall of Fame (fall 2018), which is headquartered above National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.
During the meeting, the “Amplified Chicago Blues” exhibit (April 8–Aug. 10, 2019) will be at the Chicago History Museum in advance of next year’s opening of Chicago Blues Experience Museum. The renovated old Chicago Main Post Office, Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Michigan Avenue, and Barack Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park near University of Chicago’s campus are all underway. We hope you see them during the next MLA in Chicago.
