Griffin MSI to reopen south entrance after 100 years with $22M renovation by 2027

The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry is breaking ground on a $22 million renovation to reopen its original south entrance for the first time in over 100 years, according to Block Club Chicago. The project, set to finish in fall 2027, will restore the historic south portico and add a wheelchair-accessible entrance.

“This project provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reopen the original main entry of the museum,” Dr. Chevy Humphrey, the museum’s president and CEO, told Block Club Chicago. Humphrey noted to the publication that the building was originally intended to face the park, and the museum is now restoring that design.

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New cafe and ADA access added

The renovation will include an indoor cafe with a terrace overlooking Jackson Park and the Columbia Basin. The new entrance will be fully ADA-accessible, removing barriers that previously made the door hard for visitors with disabilities to use, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.

The project was made possible by a $10 million grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the largest the foundation has awarded since 1983, Block Club Chicago confirmed. The museum, originally built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, is the only remaining structure from the “White City,” which Block Club noted was a group of marble, neo-classical buildings that went on to inspire how major Chicago landmarks were built, including the Art Institute of Chicago.

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“I believe when it became the museum in 1933, [the south entrance] was no longer the primary entrance,” said Caitlin Getman, a RAMSA Associate Partner, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The museum will remain open to the public throughout the renovation.

Once completed, visitors will enter through new on-grade doors leading to a lobby, with an elevator going up to the portico and cafe. The new terrace will offer views of the Osaka Garden and Wooded Isle, the Chicago Sun-Times noted.

“It is going to be exquisite,” Humphrey said, per the Sun-Times. The museum is partnering with New York-based firm Robert A. M. Stern Architects for the redesign.