Chicago Open House

For the fourth year in a row, the Alliance Française de Chicago is partnering with the Chicago Architecture Center and opening its doors for Open House Chicago, a free annual public festival that gives people behind-the-scenes access to more than 200 architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites across Chicago

Our impressive greystone is a prime example of the Italianate row homes that lined this stretch of Dearborn Street in the wake of the Great Chicago Fire, when many of the city’s wealthiest and most influential citizens built homes nearby. A 1998 renovation by DeStefano and Partners linked the original structure to a building around the corner on Chicago Avenue, with an intimate courtyard in-between.

The Alliance Française, founded in 1897, is Chicago’s French cultural and learning center dedicated to the study of the French language, cultural exchange and friendship between Americans and French-speaking people. It is the second oldest and second largest Alliance Française in the United States. Today, the Alliance Française de Chicago hosts a broad range of programming including notable lectures and classes for all ages and levels of French.

Visitors will have access to both levels of the Chicago Avenue building, as well as the Brown Library on the Dearborn side.