The Adler Planetarium: The First in the Western Hemisphere, Still on Its Peninsula

On a small peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan in Chicago's Museum Campus stands the Adler Planetarium, which opened on May 12, 1930 as the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. It was built by Max Adler, a Sears Roebuck executive who purchased a Zeiss projector in Germany — the most technologically sophisticated astronomical instrument in the world at the time — and donated both it and the building to the city. The building itself, a 12-sided polygon in Minnesota rainbow granite, was designed by Ernest Grunsfeld in a style blending Art Deco geometry with classical restraint. The original 1930 Zeiss projector left the Adler in 1970 and was recovered in 2020 after 50 years away; the shows now use digital projection. The Adler sits at the end of a peninsula that appears to float on the lake, making it one of the most dramatically situated museum buildings in America. On a clear night, the view of the Chicago skyline from the Adler's east steps — lake in front, city behind — is the best in the city and costs nothing to access.