A stunning new space for art will open in Chicago next month. Wrightwood 659 is Tadao Ando’s second project in the city for the same client. The 35,000-square-foot gallery is located just next door to the Pritzker laureate’s first project, a house for philanthropist and activist Fred Eychaner completed twenty years ago in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. While the house was the Japanese architect’s first free-standing building in the United States, Wrightwood 659 is a conversion of a four-story 1920’s apartment building. The exterior of the red brick structure was untouched; it is only when arriving at the soaring atrium space immediately upon entering the building that Ando’s hand is visible.

There, a poured concrete stair tower, positioned at a dramatic angle, is a sharp contrast to the tan-colored common brick—salvaged from the original structure—that line the walls of the atrium. The entire interior of the apartment building was removed and a new steel and reinforced-concrete structure was erected within the perimeter masonry shell. A rooftop structure, set back from the perimeter, was added to provide a terrace for viewing art and the city skyline.