The Modern Wing and the MCA side by side

Modern Wing

MCA

Architect or magician? Renowned Italian Renzo Piano set out “to give the Modern Wing air and lightness—to levitate it.” Beat that, Copperfield.

Architect or magician? Josef Paul Kleihues, who answered critics deriding the MCA’s austerity by saying the building needn’t “jump and dance.”

Square footage 264,000

Square footage 220,000

Cost $294 million

Cost $46 million in the mid-’90s

Admission Free entry Friday 16 through May 22. After that, $18 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, and free for children under 12, and on Thursday evenings. (Chicago residents get $2 off admission.)

Admission Suggested rates are $12 for adults, $7 for students and seniors. Free for members of the military and children under 12 and on Tuesdays.

Collection size More than 260,000 objects in the Art Institute’s permanent collection

Collection size 2,500 works (about 6,000 with artists’ books)

Social function At AIC’s quarterly After Dark shindigs ($20, members $15), nighttime art gazing is enhanced with cocktails, appetizers, and live music and theater performances.

Social function The MCA’s monthly meat market, First Fridays ($16, members $8), features DJs, appetizers and the “digital dating bar”—an iMac-powered compatibility-testing system for singles.

Figurehead chef James Beard Award–winner Tony Mantuano of splurge-worthy Spiaggia is executive chef and managing partner of Terzo Piano, the restaurant on the third floor of the Modern Wing.

Figurehead chef Wolfgang Puck lends his name to Puck’s at the MCA, which offers a seasonal lunch menu and an express counter. Worth noting: The toque hasn’t visited the MCA since October 2007.

Mascot Bronze lions flanking the Michigan Avenue entrance

Mascot Koi fish in the museum’s serene ground-level pond

The yard The sculpture terrace and flower-lined courtyard open onto Millennium Park, across the street.

The yard Outdoor sculpture garden dominated by Sol Lewitt’s Lines in Four Directions, a large installation of white gravel embedded into the lawn

Space for local artists An entire room dedicated to Chicago artists, including the SAIC-associated Chicago Imagists

Space for local artists “UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work” exhibitions show off a new local artist every month; local theater groups, musicians and dance ensembles perform in the 300-seat theater.

“Holy shit!” piece Chicago-born artist Charles Ray’s Hinoki, a 32-foot-long hand-carved re-creation of a decaying log

“Holy shit!” piece Thomas Schütte’s statue Ganz Grosse Geister (Big Spirits XL), three 16-foot-tall figures on the MCA’s front plaza that resemble butter-based Michelin men melting in the sun