Flyway City: Architecture for a Flourishing Ecosystem

Now showing11 June 2026 – 3 January 2027$15

Designed and co-curated by Studio Gang, this show confronts the billion bird collisions with glass each year in the US and presents scalable bird-friendly design for cities.

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On now All of November 2026

Not far in, a case holds birds that died flying into Chicago buildings, lent by the Field Museum. A few steps on is the fix: the patterned glass from Jeanne Gang's Aqua Tower, whose balcony spindles were also placed to give birds a visual warning.

You walk in through the companion show, Chicago's Living Habitat, and on to a map of the Mississippi Flyway, the migration route Chicago sits on. Then come Studio Gang's building models, samples of bird-safe window treatments, and retrofits at Northwestern, Loyola and the University of Chicago that cut collisions. It ends with fixes for your own windows and a map where you pin a pledge near your building.

Sun-Times critic Lee Bey called the pairing with Living Habitat "lively and informative" and said it makes its point "without being preachy", though the last stop asks Chicagoans to lobby for a bird-safe ordinance. It's in the Skyscraper Gallery, included with $15 admission, open until 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays, through 3 January.

Editor's pick

A case of birds killed flying into Chicago buildings sits a few steps from the fix: Aqua Tower's patterned glass. Sun-Times critic Lee Bey found it "lively and informative", though it ends with a lobbying pitch.

Look for

The Field Museum specimens
Look for the display of real birds killed in collisions with Chicago's buildings, which the show puts up front rather than hiding.
Aqua Tower's glass and model
A model of Gang's Aqua sits with a sample of its bird-friendly glass, and the balcony spindles are set in a pattern that warns birds.
The redwood-critter frit
Studio Gang's UC Santa Cruz project treated all its glass with a frit shaped like the animals of the redwood forest.
John Ronan's aluminum screen
A segment of the curving metal screen he designed for the Chicago Park District headquarters to stop birds hitting the glass.
The pledge map
At the end you commit to a bird-friendly action at home and stick a pin in the map near your own building.

Good for

Evening Visits
Nerding Out

Skip if

You want architecture without a campaign: the show ends asking you to lobby for a bird-safe ordinance.

With kids

There are hands-on activities where kids work out bird-safe window treatments for their homes. Children 5 and under get in free; students with ID pay $10.