The Chicago Cultural Center was built in 1897 as the city's central library and a Grand Army of the Republic memorial hall, on land the GAR donated. The text credits the Boston firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, while the infobox names C. A. Coolidge and Robert C. Spencer.
The text calls it Neoclassical with Italian Renaissance elements. It has a Bedford Blue Limestone facade on a granite base and is 104 feet (32 m) tall. Interiors use Vermont, Carrara, Knoxville pink and Connemara green marble and Favrile glass mosaics. The Preston Bradley Hall dome is given as both 38 and 40 feet (12 m).
It became an arts center in 1978, and the central library moved out in 1991. Harboe Architects led a 2021 to 2022 renovation. It is described as the nation's first free municipal cultural center.
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