NYTimes- On Friday, Wrightwood 659, a new art exhibition space designed by Tadao Ando that specializes in architecture and activist art, opened to the public in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood with a show dedicated to Mr. Ando and Le Corbusier.

The venue was founded by Fred Eychaner, a media entrepreneur and philanthropist, and Dan Whittaker, an architectural historian.

“I think there are some interstitial spaces that are open for new work and new viewpoints in Chicago,” Mr. Eychaner said in an interview on Thursday. “That’s not a criticism of any existing institutions. But we think there are a lot of things we can do here that nobody else is doing.”

For example, when the Art AIDS America show, organized by Jonathan David Katz and Rock Hushka, was struggling to find a venue in Chicago, he stepped in and created a gallery space for it. The show subsequently traveled to museums like the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington State.

“There was a lot work that had not been exposed about the influence of AIDS on contemporary art in America over the ’80s and ’90s.,” Mr. Eychaner explained.

The opening of Wrightwood 659 is not only notable for art lovers and those concerned with contemporary politics. The involvement of Mr. Ando — who built a structure for Mr. Eychaner in the 1990s — also makes it an architectural event. Mr. Ando, a Pritzker Prize-wining architect, converted a four-story, prewar apartment building for the project, removing the entire interior and filling it with steel and reinforced concrete.

“There were three things we had to do,” Mr. Ando said, via a translator. “One is to preserve the streetscape or landscape of the surroundings. At the same time I wanted to create our own universe. And thirdly, we had to actually embody the desire or ideals of Fred and Dan.”

Wrightwood 659 does not possess a collection and does not intend to develop one. Its aim is to host alternating exhibitions focused on architecture and design and socially engaged art. The current exhibition, “Ando and Le Corbusier: Masters of Architecture,” will be open through Dec. 15. Online reservations are required.