While traveling this week, I found myself blown into the Windy City. When I’m in Chicago, I always try to visit the Art Institute. The museum currently boasts an excellent exhibition of works by John Singer Sargent,  but it also has numerous other delightful and surprising exhibits. The Miniature Rooms by Narcissa Thorne is certainly a highlight for me as an architect, and it now tops my list of favorite galleries. The scope and rigor is stunning and borders on unbelievable; it is certainly in another league altogether when compared to architectural models I have constructed in the past. Mrs. Thorne’s patronage for the arts stemmed from inspiring interior design–both imagined and real–from around the world. However, she first began to construct miniatures after…