2025 Lerch Bates
People's Choice Awards Finalists

Tucked inside the historic Chicago Avenue Pumping Station, Lookingglass Theatre’s renovated public space unites mainstage and city with a street-front entrance, vibrant lobby, café, bar, and flexible rehearsal, development and outreach space. A terrazzo floor, inscribed with a celestial map pattern, guides visitors past historic utilities and new amenities, up a ceremonial stair and accessible ramp, to the mainstage. At the lobby’s core, a glowing, hand-cast fiberglass hub—part scrim, part lantern—invites all to move through and around the box office, coat check, and universal restrooms contained within, while establishing a bold, unifying architectural language that reflects the theatre’s experimental spirit.