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City Tour to include "Gay by Design", including Sidetrack and Center on Halsted

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Chicago, IL — As part of Great Chicago Places and Spaces (GCPS), May 17–18, "Gay by Design" provides architectural tours of two forward-thinking buildings designed specifically for Chicago's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community: the first green LGBT community center — Center on Halsted — and an architecturally-driven entertainment space — Sidetrack. This marks the first time that GCPS has visited specifically gay spaces. 

During the tour "Gay by Design," GCPS attendees will walk between the two venues and experience the North Halsted Streetscape, which was designed in 1997 to celebrate the first officially designated LGBT neighborhood in the U.S., and perhaps the world. The streetscape was dedicated by Mayor Daley on November 14, 1998.

Sidetrack often functions as an unofficial town hall for Chicago's LGBT community and is a meeting point for LGBT people from around the world.
The design concentrates on making people feel welcome and comfortable, and on accommodating the flow of people through linked spaces that, individually, can maintain separate events. In particular, the glass bar, built in 1999, is an interior courtyard that was one of the first open LGBT bar spaces in the U.S., signaling a greater integration of the LGBT communities into the mainstream.

The Center on Halsted — Chicago's new, official, and green-building LGBT community center — is considered a link to all facets of the community. The Center also offers support networks and programming that meet the cultural, emotional, social, educational and recreational needs of LGBT persons and their allies.

The Center on Halsted is the third incarnation of a long-held dream by the LGBT communities to have a space that provides programming specifically to meet the needs of the community. Nearly a decade in the making, the Center is the result of a highly conceptual process in which the LGBT community's diversity and its need for openness, balanced with privacy, were expressed and met. The Center is also sensitive to the neighborhood context, which includes the North Halsted Streetscape.  In addition to the Center's capital campaign, both state and federal funding were awarded for the new Center on Halsted building. This is significant because the Center is the first LGBT community center that has received support from the federal government.  The Center on Halsted celebrated Mayor Daley's support for the building by dedicating the rooftop garden to him.

The tours groups will convene at 12:30 p.m. at the Center on Halsted,
3656 N. Halsted Street, on Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18. The tours will last 2½ hours. Participants are welcome. For more information call (312) 744-7911. 

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