Geoffrey Baer

Open House Chicago is back, allowing you to peek inside buildings across Chicago. With more than 170 sites to choose from, Geoffrey Baer has fourteen recommendations for unique places to visit. 

Chicago's motto is "city in a garden," and there are plenty of beautiful, notable parks with some fascinating history to live up to that ideal, as Geoffrey Baer explores.

If you're in search of beautiful buildings, the biggest bang for your buck is to explore Chicago-area college campuses, which have noteworthy structures within easy walking distance of each other. Geoffrey Baer highlights a few. 

In his newest special, Geoffrey Baer explores The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago, from gilded lobbies to verdant parks and eye-bending skyscrapers to glorious sacred spaces. He discusses the project, and what he loves about Chicago. 

There are more than 150 sites across Chicago and some of its suburbs taking part in Open House Chicago this year, so Geoffrey Baer shares some of his favorites to help you plan your own excursions.

Geoffrey Baer takes a tour of some lost amusement parks that entertained Chicagoans, including his father, who loved Riverview, and himself—he was fond of the Kiddieland in Skokie. Do you have any fond memories of another park?

Whereas once Chinatown leaders had to turn to Norwegian architects, now there are noteworthy buildings and sites by Asian architects throughout Chicagoland, from skyscrapers to a library to a synagogue. Geoffrey Baer explores some. 

Geoffrey Baer highlights some Chicago buildings addressing climate change by striving for net-zero energy, incorporating renewal energy sources, repurposing existing buildings, and incorporating agriculture, among other things.

Architecture remains a male-dominated field, but women architects have made their mark upon Chicago and architectural history. Discover a few of them and their projects, from downtown skyscrapers to transit centers and schools.

Discover places around Chicago that contain vestiges of Native American history in the region before the arrival of Europeans and show how contemporary Native Americans continue to shape the city.

Geoffrey Baer and a production crew have been riding the rails filming his next special, Chicago by L, and we caught a behind-the-scenes look at the program on a train car built in 1959. Watch Geoffrey speak with the show's producer and a CTA employee. 

Chicago isn't the only place in the Midwest with exceptional architecture. Geoffrey Baer spotlights road trip-worthy destinations within driving distance of Chicago, from well-known marvels to hidden gems in unexpected places. 

"You cannot show with the architecture that you are poor and you cannot show that you are rich." That is what architects Marc and Nada Breitman believe. Explore their socially minded works in photos and video with Geoffrey Baer.

There's a new Chicago River Tour with Geoffrey Baer, but the TV program isn't the only way you can explore Chicago's vital waterway. You can also take your own audio tour of Riverwalk, enjoy 360 videos, watch an animated history of the river reversal, and more on our companion site.