The Hand & The Eye is Chicago’s spellbinding new magic venue-meets-members’ club

David Rockwell has designed hotels, restaurants, museums, sets for numerous Broadway shows and even the venue for the 93rd Oscars. But the renowned architect had never designed a space for magicians. ‘They are unusual, eccentric people,’ muses the Wallpaper* USA 400 honoree. ‘We don’t think anyone has ever designed for them.’ That has officially changed with the opening of The Hand & The Eye, a 36,000 sq ft venue dedicated to magic, set within Chicago’s McCormick Mansion, a stately Renaissance Revival edifice that dates from 1895.

The Hand & The Eye will leave you spellbound

Originally built as a private residence for one of the city’s most affluent families, the structure later became Pierre’s Continental Casino, then Kungsholm, a Swedish restaurant (complete with puppet opera). Following a fire, the restaurant's owner renovated and expanded the building, creating much of the limestone-clad ‘castle’ seen today, complete with quatrefoils adorning the exterior walls. Its longest resident, from 1974 to 2020, was Lawry’s The Prime Rib, a steak house.

There are few vestiges of the building’s prior lives beyond the exterior, as the mansion is not a designated historic landmark. A grand staircase (which took over four months to restore) remains from its casino days, as well as a brick wall from the original mansion. ‘We inherited a building with an incredible provenance of twists and turns and built-in eccentricities,’ says Rockwell.

It took about five years, but the result is a deliberate maze of lush, layered interiors that feels part exclusive club, part theatrical set, part design sleight of hand. ‘The residential scale of the rooms, and the numerous height changes of the floors, make for a meandering complex where multiple experiences and shows can take place at the same time,’ Rockwell explains. ‘No two rooms feel the same. Each space unfolds with a different mood and scale.’

The Hand & The Eye operates as both a private members’ club and a performance venue open to the public through ticketed admission. Guests navigate the experience through a three-hour journey guided by a concierge, moving between performances, bars and lounges, and, if one so chooses, a meal served on custom Ginori 1735 tableware.

The Hand & The Eye pays homage to Chicago-style magic, which is performed close-up in intimate spaces that encourage and enable interaction between the magician and the audience. Magic takes place throughout the building – whether in a small theatre, while seated at a bar or via spontaneous encounters. Rockwell stressed that the design is not a participant in any magic trick: there are secret doors and other elements of surprise, but the tricks are all created and performed by humans, and the design was tailored to the magicians themselves.

‘We learned so much about how magicians aren’t just hyper aware of their immediate surroundings and the people in front of them, but also of their physical surroundings,’ Rockwell notes. ‘In addition to the raked seating in the theatres, we worked closely with them to embed magic into every corner, creating areas where magicians and guests could have smaller, intimate moments in addition to the larger performance theatres.’

This translates into details most will not notice, which includes tables with adjustable height settings or removable centre panels that let the magician perform at the ‘heart’ of a table. Details that guests may notice include the floral ceiling in one of Rockwell’s favourite spaces, the Red Herring Room, made using layered UV-printed polycarbonate panels; the blue velvet panels in the Monarch Room (custom creations featuring 6,600 beaded pearls that took eight months to make); a wall of vintage security boxes and keys in The Vault; and the wall coverings in some restrooms that feature playing cards.

While seemingly random, the commission was very intentional and brought together a motley crew of men of a certain age who all shared a passion for magic. As a child in New Jersey, Rockwell became fascinated with the art. ‘I started doing magic tricks at younger kids’ birthday parties. I had a hamster – Herman the Great – who was part of my act,’ he recalls. ‘The apex of my magic career was when I built the Saw the Lady in Half trick. I did saw a lady in half. But in the rearview mirror, I see that the working drawings and building the trick was what really attracted me.’ He adds that he’s always been friends with magicians, has pondered hiring them as consultants for projects, and was involved in developing a Houdini musical that never made it to Broadway.

Rockwell was tapped for the project by his friend Glen Tullman, a healthcare entrepreneur, fellow Chicago Bears fan, and magician since the age of eight (‘He’s better than I am,’ admits Rockwell). Tullman offered Rockwell the opportunity to create something completely new from scratch, a departure from the firm’s usual work. ‘It’s a total first for Rockwell Group, and I love that it brings together performance, magic, dining and discovery in a way that reflects our long belief that architecture can choreograph wonder,’ Rockwell says. For a man who once performed tricks with a hamster named Herman the Great, the opportunity feels less like a departure than a full-circle moment.

The Hand & The Eye is located at 100 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611, United States

This article appears in the August 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available now in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.