Shedd Aquarium
- Architect
- Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
- Year
- 1930
- Style
- Neoclassical
- City
- Chicago, IL
The Shedd Aquarium opened May 30, 1930, designed by the Chicago firm Graham, Anderson, Probst & White as part of the lakefront Museum Campus alongside the Field Museum and Adler Planetarium. Its 5-million-gallon aquarium was, at the time, the largest indoor aquarium in the world and the first inland aquarium anywhere with a permanent saltwater fish collection, a technical feat for a facility built far from the ocean.
the building
32,000 animals, 1,500 species. The aquarium now holds about 32,000 animals across 1,500 species — fish, marine mammals, birds, snakes, amphibians, and insects — making it the fourth-largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere and the 11th-largest in the world.
the style
Neoclassical (c. 1750–1850): Buildings modeled closely on Greek and Roman temples: grand columned porches, domes, and plain, symmetrical walls.
More on Neoclassicalsignificance
The Shedd is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was the most-visited aquarium in the Western Hemisphere in 2005 and, by 2007, the most-visited cultural institution in Chicago, drawing 2.02 million visitors in 2015 alone.
nearby
- Field Museum of Natural History
- Adler Planetarium
- Wholesale Furniture Exposition Building
- Crane Company Building
- Johnson Publishing Company Building
- Ludington Building