Jan. 06--Chicago's first architecture biennial drew more than a half-million visitors, city officials said Wednesday.
Titled "The State of the Art of Architecture" and open from Oct. 1 to Jan. 3, the biennial exhibited cutting-edge work by 120 architecture and design offices from more than 30 nations.
There is no way to independently verify the accuracy of the attendance figures. In the past, Chicago officials have been known to inflate crowd totals for city-sponsored events.
According to city officials, the biennial attracted a total of 530,551 visitors: 276,806 at the biennial's Chicago Cultural Center headquarters and 253,745 at eight other venues, including the Stony Island Arts Bank on the South Side and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed SC Johnson headquarters in Racine, Wis.
In contrast to the well-established Venice Architecture Biennale, which charges for tickets, the Chicago event was free. In 2014, the Venice Biennale drew 228,000 people over nearly six months.
City officials said they would announce the dates, leadership and theme of the next Chicago biennial, which will be held in 2017, in the next few months.
