SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND MOODS

#201 Ex Teresa Arte Actual and George Peabody Library
Ex Teresa Arte Actual is a former 17th century convent in Mexico City’s historic Zocalo neighborhood that has been reimagined as a vital center for contemporary art and music. The George Peabody Library in Baltimore is one of the most beautiful library spaces in the world with a historic collection to match.

#202 Estudios Churubusco and the Fisher Building
Estudios Churubusco is Mexico’s premiere film production studio and the birthplace of Mexico’s Golden Era of Cinema and host of numerous American productions while Detroit’s Fisher Building is architect Albert Kahn’s masterpiece and a poignant symbol of Detroit’s glorious past and hopeful future.

#203 Biblioteca Vasconcelos and Ohio State Reformatory
Shelves hung from the ceiling give the tens of thousands of books in Mexico City’s Biblioteca Vasconcelos the illusion of floating in the air. The library is also a thriving culture hub hosting dance, film, music, art exhibits and more. Ohio State Reformatory was built with a hopeful mission of redemption but became a notorious maximum security prison that would later serve as the set for the film The Shawshank Redemption.

#204 Brooklyn Tower and the Wrigley Building
Brooklyn’s first super-tall tower looms over one of the most beautiful bank interiors in the country in the Dime Savings Bank which was originally built to serve workers building the first subway tunnels between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Built on five-cent sticks of chewing gum, Chicago’s Wrigley Building is an iconic masterpiece that defines the stretch of Michigan Avenue that has come to be known as the Magnificent Mile.

#205 Stony Island Arts Bank and Cranbrook Academy of Art
Once a thriving bank that was abandoned by white residents during the Great Migration, the Stony Island Arts Bank has been repurposed and reimagined by Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation as a thriving hub for Black culture. The Cranbrook Academy of Art is a stunning mecca of design just outside of Detroit created by renowned architect Eliel Saarinen that today includes a sprawling education, research and public museum complex.