Garrick Theater
Chicago demolished one of Adler and Sullivan's richest theatres after preservationists failed to overcome the economics of its site.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A Chicago theatre and office building designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, originally called the Schiller Theater.
The building combined a high office block with an acoustically advanced theatre and elaborate organic ornament. It changed names and uses while remaining a major work of the Chicago School.
Existence timeline
Adler and Sullivan design the Schiller Theater and offices.
Audiences enter the acoustically innovative auditorium.
The building continues through new management and identity.
Architects and historians organise to save the threatened building.
The theatre and tower are removed for parking.
Why it ended
Despite a prominent preservation campaign, the building was demolished in 1961 for a parking structure.
Last confirmed trace
The Art Institute of Chicago preserves architectural fragments, photographs and documentation recovered before demolition.
What it left behind
Its loss helped transform architectural salvage and documentation into tools of the preservation movement.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.