Tap to enter
MH
01 / 00
01 · Front elevation
United Center Campus • Damen + Adams • Opening 2028

Chicago’s Next Great Act

In a city where every room makes music, this one is built for nothing else.

Music Runs Through Chicago

From basement shows to theaters to the arena the Bulls and Blackhawks call home, Chicago’s stages and its crowds are why artists circle the date.

03 · Inside the room
“We aren’t trying to build a smaller arena. We’re creating a venue around what makes live music powerful in the first place, the connection between an artist and their fans. Every decision, from the room itself to what happens backstage and outside its doors, is being made with that experience in mind.”
Danny Wirtz · Chairman and CEO, Chicago Blackhawks · Co-chair, United Center Joint Venture
Fans And Artists, 1A And 1A

Serving The Connection

The fans are why it’s here, and the artists are why they come. The sound, the sightlines, the stage and the way a crowd moves through the room all serve what happens between them.

“The musical history of this address is not incidental to what we’re building – it’s the reason we believe a room like this belongs here, and nowhere else.”
Danny Wirtz
Chairman and CEO, Chicago Blackhawks · Co-chair, United Center Joint Venture
1901 West Madison

History Is Made At 1901

Chicago Stadium · 1929 to 1994

1959

Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald take the Stadium stage.

1975

The Rolling Stones and The Who both come through.

1977

Led Zeppelin plays four nights. Elvis comes through in his last year on the road.

1977

Queen begins two years of Stadium shows.

1994

Pearl Jam plays the Stadium’s last concert.

United Center · 1994 to today

1994

Billy Joel opens the building.

Since

The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Paul McCartney, U2 and The Who.

06a · Chicago Stadium
06b · United Center
Home Of The Bulls And The Blackhawks

Twelve championships between them, six won right here: the Blackhawks’ Cups in 1934, 1938 and 2015, and the Bulls’ titles in 1992, 1996 and 1997.

“Music has an extraordinary ability to bring people together. This venue gives us another way to connect the United Center campus with the West Side, with Chicago and with the millions of people from all parts of the world who come to Chicago to experience something together.”
Michael Reinsdorf
President and CEO, Chicago Bulls · Co-chair, United Center Joint Venture
The Families Behind The Show

Built From Both Sides Of The Stage

Between them, the Wirtz and Reinsdorf families have worked this address from the loading dock to the owner’s box. They run two of sports’ great franchises: the Bulls, with six titles, and the Blackhawks, an Original Six club with six Stanley Cups and the NHL’s attendance leader for more than a decade. The team behind a 20,000-seat arena has been in every design decision, from the load-in to the last row.

The Next Chapter Of A Vibrant Scene

A Generational Build

The first theater built from the ground up in Chicago in nearly 70 years.

In 1889, Adler and Sullivan designed the Auditorium’s architecture and sound as one, and it’s still where history gets made on stage. Nearly 140 years later, the Music Hall carries that ambition into this century.

09 · The Auditorium
Joining The Lineup

A New Room In Chicago’s Lineup

Artists play Chicago at every stage of a career, in rooms that meet them where they are. The Music Hall adds the room built for 6,000, for one night or a run of them, with the United Center next door for the nights that call for 20,000.

Clubs, Venues And Theaters
The Music Hall
Up to 6,000
United Center
20,917, next door

Built to scale down when a show wants it closer.

“The 6K cap is the one that artists, agents, managers, promoters are all kind of seeing as missing in a lot of markets, but specifically Chicago.”

Matt Rucins · Director of Content and Programming
The Room

No Such Thing As An Impossible Show

11a · Stage to house
11b · Rear house
11c · Mezzanine
11d · Balcony
11e · Standing
11f · Seated

Seated, standing or both, up to 6,000. Acoustics come first, designed by Kirkegaard. Three levels, floor, mezzanine and balcony, with a clear line to the stage from every one, and lighting that moves with the show. Artists are curious. The room is built to bring their ideas to life, and to put every fan in front of them.

Sound Checked

Tuned To The Last Detail

RIOS

Architecture

Master planner of the entire 1901 Project and architect of Phase One. In Los Angeles, more than a decade of work with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl, and a major renovation of the Mark Taper Forum.

Kirkegaard

Acoustics

Chicago’s own acousticians. Their rooms include London’s Royal Festival Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall and Tanglewood.

Theatre Projects

Theater Design

Founded in London in 1957. More than 1,500 projects in over 80 countries, including Dallas’s Wyly Theatre and Singapore’s Esplanade.

Between Sets

From The First Drink To The Last Note

Bars on both levels and two on the floor, wide walkways and merch in three spots. Everything around the music is there when you want it and out of the way when you don’t.

13a · Main bar
13b · Concourse bar
13c · Merch
14 · Artist lounge
The Artist Experience

Make Yourself At Home

From the moment an artist arrives to the curtain call, the compound carries the venue’s history and personality. Every artist is a guest, never the talent, and when artists are looked after, fans feel it from the first song.

Programming

Built To Evolve With Music

Music, by definition, is change. As artists push what a show can be, the room changes with them. It’s run by people who’ve spent their lives doing exactly this, inside the same organization as its next-door neighbor, the United Center.

15a · In performance
15b · Another show
16 · From the stage

The Artist Sets The Stage

Every decision at the Music Hall gives artists space to explore, and gives fans a night they can only have here.

What To Expect

Known Artists, Shows Never Seen

Runs of nights, records played start to finish, catalogs rebuilt for the performance, and arena acts up close.

Examples of range. Actual acts have not yet been announced.

18a · Street level
18b · Outdoors
Daily Beat

Something’s Always On

Tours come and go, but the neighborhood is where this lives. Two restaurants at the front door serve anyone, seven days a week, and 80,000 square feet of retail across the Music Hall and two neighboring buildings will fill over time with a curated mix of Chicago shops and places to gather, woven into the fabric of the West Side.

19 · The campus
The 1901 Project

Amplifying The West Side

The Music Hall is the start. The Wirtz and Reinsdorf families’ plan turns more than 55 acres of parking around the United Center into a neighborhood to live, work and gather in over the next 15 years. It starts with music and culture, and everything else grows from there.

The Scope

A Neighborhood, Built From The Ground Up

$7B
Long-term private investment
55+
Acres around the United Center
15
Years to build it out
13–14M sq ft
Planned at full build-out
9,463
Homes, 20% affordable
1,309
Hotel rooms across the plan
~25 acres
Parks and open space
~670K sq ft
Retail, with ~660K of office
32,000
Construction jobs, 7,000 permanent
Phase One · Opening 2028

About $500 million across 12.3 acres: the Music Hall, a 187-key hotel, restaurants, shops and new open space, next to the 20,917-seat United Center.

The Plan

Homes, offices, more hotels and parks, built where the parking lots are today.

Timeline

Shows Start Spring 2028

June 2026

Groundbreaking

March 2027

Booking Begins

October 2027

The Interior Takes Form

December 2027

Construction Complete

Spring 2028

Showtime

22 · Closing exterior
Damen + Adams • Spring 2028

Chicago’s Next Great Act

Westside Music Hall
Addendum · For Partners

Partners, Not Sponsors.

Partners here believe in what happens in the room, and they’re here to make every night better for the people in it.

Built Together

Part Of The Show

The best partners go beyond an activation or a sign. They build with the Music Hall team to innovate, surprise and elevate the night for artists and fans alike.

Built Together

The biggest ideas start with both of us in the room. A series, a space or a signature moment, developed with the Music Hall team from day one, that only exists because we made it together.

Marketing And Promotions

The rights to promote an affiliation with the venue, create exclusive offers or present a program series.

Program Presentation

Present residencies, event series and opening week, alongside the programming team.

Advertising

Out-of-home, in-venue branding and online, across the Music Hall and the campus around it.

Product Integration

As owner and operator, the venue can build partners into its service and operations, from food and beverage to speakers, microphones, furnishings and fixtures.

Experiential

Activations on the terrace, in the South Commons and along the concourse, where guests already gather.

Retail

First-floor space in the Music Hall and two adjacent buildings, open to local groups and national brands in tech and the arts.

p3 · The studio
The Studio

A Blank Canvas

A first-floor studio, built with a partner and open to the street, made for one-offs: a session, a launch, a performance that happens once and only here, next door to both stages.

Premium

The Closest Seats In The House

Twenty Premium Theater Boxes, each for four. A Premium Club that any ticket can upgrade into, held to the club’s capacity. An outdoor terrace facing the United Center. Each one is built around a better view of the show and a better place to spend the night around it.

p4a
p4b
p4c
p4d
p4e
p4f
Premium

The Owner’s Boxes

Two suites for 12 to 20 guests, with direct access to the Premium Club.

p5a
p5b
p6 · Private event
Private Events

Private Events, Every Shape And Size

The whole theater for a company night, the Premium Club for a launch, the terrace for a summer party, the concourse for a reception, with the hotel next door for guests and a partnership team that builds each one around your goals.

a1 · The stage
Addendum · For Artists And Their Teams

A Place To Play

The room is the instrument. You tune it.

The Day

We’ve Got It From Load-In

“We can build the new journey for the semi that has to load in, or the tour bus, or the guest walking through the door.”

Danny Wirtz · Chairman and CEO, Chicago Blackhawks

Easy load-ins, top-tier production and a compound that’s yours from arrival to curtain. The 187-key hotel steps away is there for your comfort and your curiosity, so Chicago feels like somewhere to stick around after the show.

a2 · Backstage
The Team

The People Who Shaped Chicago’s Music Scene

More Than 30 Years Booking Chicago

Combined, across some of the city’s most influential rooms and promoters.

From Roadie To Owner

Touring crews, then years in music marketing, then the venue itself.

Taste That Shaped A Generation

Years spent helping people find the music that would matter to them most.

Three Decades At The United Center

Running the largest arena in the NBA, home of the Bulls and the Blackhawks, and the shows that have played it.

“We’re building a room that can serve artists at different points in their careers, give them reasons to come back to Chicago and, most importantly, create the kind of connection between artist and audience that makes a show memorable.”

Matt Rucins · Director of Content and Programming