Ganz Hall
Roosevelt University, Chicago
430 S. Michigan Ave., 7th Floor
Chicago

Photo: Greg Murphey, Gregory Murphey Studios, Inc.

Photo: Greg Murphey, Gregory Murphey Studios, Inc.

Photo: Greg Murphey, Gregory Murphey Studios, Inc.

Photo Source: :AIA Chicago Website

Ganz Hall
Roosevelt University
430 S. Michigan Ave., 7th Floor
Chicago (312-341-3780)

"Using archival photographs, the electric lights (electroliers) were translated into drawings. Then foam-core mock-ups were created to determine the light fixtures' impact on the recital hall. Details were cast and recast until a precise reinterpretation was achieved. Final pieces were assembled and wired onto frames. Eventually the fixtures were covered with gold leaf and hand-painted. Each of the 450-lb, six-feet tall lights have authentic lightbulbs. Jurors were swayed by the prodigious amount of research and quest for accuracy. (Double winner; also received Interior Architecture Citation of Merit Award.)"

Article source:AIA Chicago Website

Received 2003 Chicago Landmark Award for
Preservation Excellence awards.

"Rudolph Ganz Memorial Hall, housed within the Auditorium Building on Roosevelt University’s Chicago Campus, is a little-known, yet much-revered space. It is one of Chicago’s ultimate examples of artistic and architectural collaboration – featuring the work of French painter, Albert Fleury, Louis Millet and Healy, Louis Sullivan, Dankmar Adler and their then-apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright.  

The Auditorium Building, designed in 1890 by Dankmar Adler, Louis Sullivan and their apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright, was built as a 5-star hotel and opera house. During construction, one important detail was forgotten: a banquet hall. So they suspended the banquet hall over the opera house roof on the 7th floor of the hotel, and filled it with the best of their collective work: Gold-leaf stenciled arches punctuated with stunning electric chandeliers, 10 distinct mural paintings by French painter Albert Fleury which depict Midwestern and Plains activities, 12 hand-carved wooden capitols (each one unique) topping beautiful tiger maple wood columns. The room is then flanked by 10 unique hand-painted murals and 17 stained glass windows.

Over the past 100 years, the room had fallen into disrepair. The beautiful electric chandeliers had been replaced by large white globes, and the details of the room had faded.

Using archival photographs, the room was reconstructed and restored to its original glory. The unique steel chandeliers were fabricated to look exactly like the photograph – including the original Edison light bulbs that bathe the room in golden light. The capitols were restored, and all the gold leaf on the archways gleams once again. The back of the room was expanded to include a stage."

Source: Pepper construction website

Direction: Google map

Roosevelt University's Auditorium Building is located at 430 South Michigan Avenue.
Ganz Hall is on the seventh floor of the Auditorium Building and
must be accessed through one of the elevators in the main lobby.