Cultural Building sights in Chicago
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Newberry Library
Humanities nerds and those trying to document far-flung branches of their family tree will have a field day at this research library. Entry requires a library card, but one-day passes are available for curious browsers; you must be 16 or older to be admitted. Once inside, you can pester the patient librarians with requests for help in tracking down all manner of historical ephemera. (The collection is noncirculating, though, so don’t expect to take that 1st edition of the King James Bible home with you.) The Newberry often features interesting special exhibits, and has a bookstore where you can pick up such treatises as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy, and cool …
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Harold Washington Library Center
This grand, art-filled building with free internet and wi-fi is Chicago’s whopping main library. Major authors give readings here, and exhibits are constantly shown in the galleries. The light-drenched, 9th-floor Winter Garden is a sweet hideaway for reading, writing or just taking a load off, though you’ll have to hike to get there. Take the escalators to the 3rd floor (home of the browsable newspapers and computer commons), then transfer to the elevator to go up six more floors. And those green copper creatures staring down from the exterior roof? They’re wise old owls.
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