The Chicago Architecture Center’s free annual spectacle, Open House Chicago, returns Oct. 18-19, unlocking the doors to more than 200 sites that most of us might not otherwise see.

Some old favorites return such as the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave., and Wintrust’s aptly-named Grand Banking Hall, 231 S. LaSalle Street, a place so Greek Revival it makes me want to slip on a toga and deposit a few drachmas up in there.

But this year’s event has 30 new places to gawk at. All of them are pretty good, but here are my top five:

Hilliard Towers Apartments, Near South Side

Built in 1966, these circular apartment towers at 30 W. Cermak Road were originally public housing residences. But instead of warehousing people in stark high-rise towers that were typical of the era, Marina City a

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