

Host Geoffrey Baer takes viewers across the country to the places that changed America....

Explore Chicago, its neighborhoods, and beyond with WTTW host and producer Geoffrey Baer. From the neighborhoods and suburbs of Chicago to the Chicago River and the Boulevards to the foods and history of Chicago to the spaces that changed America, join us to discover the stories behind places near and far....

Chicago is full of places that take your breath away, from gilded lobbies to verdant parks and eye-bending skyscrapers to glorious sacred spaces. Geoffrey Baer has seen a lot of these stunning locations while exploring the Chicago area for his WTTW documentaries, and his newest special takes you even further into The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago....

Ten American homes designed by visionary architects, their eclectic clients and current homeowners are highlighted. Each home combined form, function and art to challenge the nature of a home and evolving relationship with it....

The ride of your life is just a turnstile away! Take a special journey as Geoffrey Baer explores Chicago's ethnic diversity from on-board the 'L.'! This guided front-row tour is a unique, elevated glimpse into the history, cultural life, and architectural features of the city's diverse neighborhoods. Learn the hidden secrets and intriguing stories of sites that may seem commonplace on your daily commute. Explore the hidden wonders of the downtown Loop, Bronzeville, Old town, Wrigleyville, Garfie...

Did a UFO fly over O’Hare Airport? How did the alligator later named "Chance the Snapper" suddenly appear in Chicago’s Humboldt Lagoon? Is Hull House haunted? Why don’t Chicagoans put ketchup on their hot dogs? WTTW award-winning host/writer/producer Geoffrey Baer sets out to solve these and other puzzlers in WTTW’s CHICAGO MYSTERIES....

In Biking the Boulevards, Geoffrey Baer bikes his way across Chicago, using the city's network of boulevards. The boulevards are wide, tree-lined streets, which connect Chicago's largest parks. This system of parks and boulevards was the first of its kind in the country - imagined nearly 150 years ago. Discover how these boulevards came to be and explore these magnificent parks, from Washington and Sherman Parks on the South Side, to Douglas, Humboldt and Garfield on the West. These green spaces...

10 Buildings that Changed America presents 10 trend-setting works of architecture that have shaped and inspired our American landscape. These aren’t just historic structures by famous architects. These buildings have dramatically influenced our built environment in many ways – and in one case, for over two centuries....

Chicago is filled with Architectural wonders from the famous to the hidden treasures waiting to be discovered! Join Geoffrey Baer as he explores seven of the best Chicago has to offer! The seven wonders include: Amazing Hotels, The Ferris Wheel, Heavenly Buildings, Scraping the Sky in Style, Architecture for Animals, That Tiffany Town, The Making of Millennium Park and so much more!...

History of Chicago from the stage of the Chicago River....

In this sequel to WTTW's popular Hidden Chicago special, Geoffrey Baer explores dusty attics, deep tunnels and the candy aisle at Walgreen's in search of fascinating fragments of Chicago's past and little-known stories behind things we see and use every day....

Documentary showing some of the partially hidden history and art in the city of Chicago....

Join us for a journey along our most famous front yard. The eyes of the world were on Chicago's Lakefront on election night 2008 as tens of thousands of people gathered there to celebrate with President-Elect Barack Obama. Chicago's lakefront is unique in the world. It's a seventeen-mile-long people's paradise that belongs to all of us. WTTW's popular on-air host, producer and Chicago Architecture Foundation docent Geoffrey Baer will re-trace his steps in Chicago's Lakefront, an all-new docume...

History of the suburbs and towns North of Chicago....

History of the suburbs and towns Northwest of Chicago....

Did you ever wish you could travel back in history to find out what happened right on the spot where you’re standing? That’s exactly what WTTW Host Geoffrey Baer did. With his Chicago Time Machine, he peels back layers of fascinating stories all over Chicagoland, going back as far as 14,000 years. We’ve put all of these stories – and many more – together. Happy travels!...

In an area barely ten square blocks, Geoffrey Baer traces the history of the skyscraper in the city where it was born. What makes a city, a city? Is it the buildings? The people? Is it what happened here 100 years ago — or what is happening right now? To find out, we invite you to join us in an urban adventure with WTTW host, writer, and producer Geoffrey Baer’s new multimedia tour through Chicago’s downtown Loop. Explore this site. Listen to the audio stories of the everyday people who inhabi...

Join Geoffrey Baer for his newest engaging Chicago tour program, which covers Chicago's historic Western suburbs. Highlights include Brookfield Zoo, McDonald's headquarters, some Frank Lloyd Wright architectural treasures, Morton Arboretum, the Glen Ellyn Children's Chorus, the original Kiddieland in Melrose Park, the annual Pet Parade in LaGrange, a famous Hillside cemetery where Al Capone is buried, and much, much more. Geoffrey’s fascinating trek takes you westward from Cicero to Naperville,...

Take a journey along the waterways, highways, and railways of Chicago's South Suburbs and Northwest Indiana. Starting in Gary, with a look inside the largest still mill in the Western Hemisphere, travel along the Lake Michigan shoreline to Chicago's Calumet Harbor and cruise the Calumet River to Blue Island. From there, visit Robbins, hop in a Model A Ford, and head south on the historic Dixie Highway through the beautiful communities of Homewood, Flossmoor, Olympia Fields, Chicago Heights, and ...

You are what you eat goes the old saying. So what can we learn about Chicagoans from the food on our plates? WTTW 11's Geoffrey Baer plays both taste-tester and tour guide, exploring the little-known stories behind Chicago's favorite foods....

Follow Geoffrey Baer on a heartwarming, nostalgic, and humorous journey as he tells the story of Hanukkah, exploring the time-honored traditions of this joyous Jewish holiday and making a few surprising discoveries along the way. With the help of Chicago-area Jewish and interfaith families and children, musicians, and religious leaders, Geoffrey also sets out to answer some age-old questions, samples seasonal culinary delights, attends a car-top Menorah parade, visits a home lavishly decorated f...

Geoffrey Baer is back to traverse the length and breadth of Chicago’s world-famous “front yard” to explore everything from beloved birds to submerged secrets along Chicago’s lakefront. A fascinating journey from the history of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable to modern-day hikes on Northerly Island, fishing for lake trout, and snorkeling on a prehistoric reef, Touring the Lakefront with Geoffrey Baer Geoffrey takes viewers on a journey to discover how our lakefront was envisioned, built, and defende...

Chicago is known, famously, as “the city that works.” But who keeps it working? In a new 60-minute special, CHICAGO WORKS, Geoffrey Baer meets (and helps) the industrious workers across the city and suburbs who operate the Chicago’s moveable bridges, deliver millions of packages, care for the city’s animals, process recycling, operate the Wrigley Field scoreboard, and more. Along the way, he learns why the 2.6 million residents of “the city of the big shoulders,” as Carl Sandburg described it, a...

For generations, seemingly all paths led through Chicago as trains carrying passengers, livestock, and freight crisscrossed the country. In a new WTTW special and companion website, Riding the Rails, lifelong train enthusiast Geoffrey Baer hops aboard all kinds of trains to tell the story of this essential mode of transport and how it shaped our city. Along the way, he uncovers clues all around us to railroads of the past, recalls the colorful characters who built them and the unsung workers who...