City of Chicago
Chicago Cultural Center, Grand Army of the Republic Rooms
  • Project Type
    • Restoration
  • Status
  • Delivery Method
    • GMP
  • Services
  • Location
    • Chicago, IL
  • Duration
    • 12 months
  • Size
    • 8,500 sqft
  • Architect
    • Harboe Architects, PC

Berglund Construction provided construction services to the Chicago Cultural Center to restore the Grand Army of the Republic Rooms and the Healy & Millet stained glass dome. In the 1970s, these once vibrant rooms decorated by Tiffany were painted over in muted tones. The dome, composed of 62,000 pieces of glass Borgata Casino gamesand spanning 40-feet-wide, was covered in dirt and artificially lit by electric bulbs.

Over the course of a year, the project team removed and restored the stained glass from the dome, removed the artificial lighting and exposed the dome structure to natural light utilizing an exterior skylight. In the Grand Army of the Republic Rooms, preservation teams restored the Tiffany paint scheme, performed historic plaster repairs, cleaned all mosaic floors, restored the historic wood doors and hardware, and replicated the historic light fixtures.

The Restora­tion of the Grand Army of the Republic Rooms was an incred­i­ble project, the team was able to utilize con­ser­va­tion tech­niques to metic­u­lous­ly uncover the original paint and gilded finishes to bring the space back to its original grandeur. Pre­serv­ing our cultural heritage enriches our com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly so at the Chicago Cultural Center, which is a rare mas­ter­piece that is free and open to the public.”

Sarah Horton

Preservation Manager

Read about how our teams replicated the historic light fixtures:
Historic Light Fixture Replication

Photography By Tom Rossiter