Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Contemporary art museum in Near North Side, Chicago, US.
The Museum of Contemporary Art occupies a four-story, 220,000-square-foot building at 220 East Chicago Avenue, designed by Josef Paul Kleihues and opened in 1996 on the site of a former National Guard Armory. Its boxy facade of tan and grey stone has a recessed ground floor behind square columns, with glass entrances and tall upper windows. Inside, a signature staircase rises to an elevated ground floor with an atrium, and full glass-walled east and west facades face the city and Lake Michigan.
The institution began in 1967 on East Ontario Street as an initiative for emerging artistic currents and relocated in 1996 to the Josef Paul Kleihues-designed building on the Michigan Avenue waterfront. This move marked the shift from a compact exhibition space to a venue with an expanded collection and international reach.
The MCA opened in 1967 after 30 critics, collectors and dealers met at critic Doris Lane Butler's home in 1964 to plan a contemporary counterpart to the Art Institute. Its first home, a former bakery at 237 East Ontario Street, had earlier served as Playboy Enterprises offices. The inaugural director was Jan van der Marck, who in 1970 invited Wolf Vostell to create the sculpture Concrete Traffic in Chicago.
The entrance is on East Chicago Avenue, where the recessed ground floor sits behind square columns; the glass door panel reads "MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART". Inside, a signature staircase leads up to the elevated ground floor with its atrium, and the full glass-walled east and west façades give a direct view of the city and Lake Michigan. The building occupies the site of a National Guard Armory that stood from 1907 until its demolition in 1993.
The building stands on the site of a National Guard armory that occupied the block between Lake Michigan and Michigan Avenue from 1907 until its demolition in 1993. The museum opened there on June 21–22, 1996, with a 24-hour event that drew more than 25,000 visitors.
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