Open House Chicago, the city's annual fall spectacle, returns this weekend. And as usual, it does not disappoint.Now in its 16th year, the free two-day event, sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Center, lets folk see the interiors of more than 200 of the city's best places and spaces — a great d eal of which are normally closed to the public.Not a bad one in the bunch. See as many of them as you can. And there are 19 sites that weren't on last year's tours. Among my newcomer favorites is the nearly 2-acre Sears Sunken Garden in North Lawndale, which is undergoing a large-scale renovation at 3330 W. Arthington St.The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry is also new this year, and I recommend seeing the place. Be warned: The museum is only offering free Open House visits on Sunday — and you'll need a complimentary ticket to get in.Yes, I know. I’ve been taking digs lately at the museum for wanting to construct that hefty Welcome Hall on the building's front lawn along 57th Street. Still, the palatial, Charles Atwood-designed 1893 Greek Revival structure — with 1933 Art Moderne interiors by Alfred P. Shaw — blends architecture and purpose into one of the most magical buildings in the city.Open House is an architecture lovers dream. And an architecture critic's dream. My job is to poke around buildings, yet I've often taken a busman's weekend at Open House to see even more, or to check out old favorites. If you're attending the event, here are five more places I recommend seeing. The 5040-5060 N. Marine Drive Condominiums mix Art Deco and Art ModernePhoto by Eric Allix Rogers 5040-60 N. Marine Drive Condominiums, UptownThe eight-story building, constructed in 1939, looks like Art Deco and its successor Art Moderne shook hands with each other. With its corner windows, multicolored brickwork, stylish interiors and a courtyard fountain that must be seen, the building is both detailed and minimalist. And as sleek as a Mid-Atlantic accent. The Avalon Regal Theater at 1641 East 79th St.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file Avalon Regal Theater, South ShoreThough its exterior is battered, the shuttered Moorish Revival theater at 1645 E. 79th St. still puts on quite a performance inside with mind blowing architectural tiles and details and more that feel as if they were crafted in far-away lands long, long ago. Earlier this month, the 99-year-old venue received a $250,000 city grant to help fund critical stabilization work. It'll need millions more from other sources to become an active theater, but even as it is now, the building illustrates why the show must again go on. Inside the office of architecture and design firm Canopy at 180 W. Washington St., Suite 200.Provided by Open House Chicago Canopy, Downtown No doubt it'll be fun seeing what's built and on the boards at Canopy, an architecture firm at 180 W. Washington St., Suite 200, that does community-based, socially responsible work out in the neighborhood. Their $34 million affordable housing project, Jigzibik, at 2909 W. Irving Park Road — marketed to Native American renters and incorporating the indigenous populace’s history and customs in the building's design — nears completion. What's next? Go see. Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center at 931 S. Homan Ave.Courtesy of Eric Allix Rogers Charles H. Shaw Technology and Learning Center, North LawndaleThis is an intriguing adaptive reuse project at 931 S. Homan Ave. that turned a century-old brick coal-fired powerhouse on the former Sears, Roebuck Co. campus into a high school — while preserving the powerhouse's main room, with its soaring industrial ceiling and assorted pulleys, tanks and assorted steampunk-looking doohickeys. Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist at 55 E. Wacker DriveCourtesy of Eric Allix Rogers Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, DowntownDesigned by Harry Weese, this circular modernist travertine-clad church — almost resembling an inverted musical speaker ready to blast off — has been an architectural curiosity since its 1968 construction. Go inside and you'll see why the building, 55 E. Wacker Drive, is among Weese's best work with its circular seating, dramatic ceiling and an Aeolian-Skinner organ with pipes beautiful enough to pass for sculpture.To see a full list of the 2026 Open House sites, visit openhousechicago.org. ...read more read less