Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum opens to help LaSalle Street revival
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The founders of the Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum hope the new attraction helps revitalize the financial district.
What to expect: The free museum on the first floor of the iconic Art Deco Board of Trade Building on LaSalle and Jackson celebrates the history of the CBOT, from an instructive video of traders' ferocious hand signaling to a phone that plays memories of the men (and at least one woman) who ruled the pits.
Between the lines: The financial district has changed greatly since CBOT opened in the late 19th century, especially after 2020 as work-from-home policies keep workers off LaSalle several days a week, and development has moved to other parts of the city.
- Even before the pandemic, the Board of Trade was heavily impacted by the transition to online trading and closure of the physical trading pits a decade ago.
The intrigue: Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced LaSalle Street Reimagined in 2022. Earlier this year, developers broke ground on 79 W. Monroe, an office-to-apartment conversion.
- Chicago's Department of Planning and Development awarded museum founders R2 Companies, the real estate firm that manages the CBOT building, $250,000 for the museum as part of an effort to revitalize empty spaces in the Loop.
What they're saying: "It's no secret that every city in the world's got to rethink their central business district and part of doing that is not just places to live, work, eat and shop, but you have some activities to do," Ald. Bill Conway tells Axios.
- "This is an iconic building, and an important part of the birth and backbone of our economy and capitalism globally. So having a museum that commemorates that, I think will be very interesting to people from around the world."
State of play: Conway, whose ward includes the CBOT, says the museum is a sign of the area's growing arts and culture scene, which already gets regular visitors on the city's architecture tours.
If you go: The Chicago Board of Trade Building Museum is free and open to the public 10am-4pm Monday-Friday.