Design within reach

Can buildings be gay? Bill Greaves can think of at least two that are. As the mayor’s liaison to the LGBT community, Greaves created the Gay by Design architecture tour for this week’s Great Chicago Places & Spaces. Kicking off at Center on Halsted (pictured), the tour is first led by the building’s architect, Jay Longo, who will explain how the youth center contains open spaces (think “openly gay”) plus closed spaces for counseling. And in Sidetrack, architect Richard Gibbons will point out the 26-year-old bar’s nine-year-old addition: the first glass front in any U.S. gay establishment.