A treasured area of the Art Institute of Chicago may be reshaped by an expansion plan that would see the gallery spaces grow significantly in size.

That area of the museum is the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room, which was originally built between 1893 and 1894, and which was spared from demolition during the ’70s. Since then, this monumental room has functioned both as a point of pilgrimage for visitors to the museum and an event space available for rental.

While the room may not receive crowds on the scale attracted by Grant Wood’s *American Gothic*, Georges Seurat’s *A Sunday on La Grande Jatte*, and other masterpieces owned by the Art Institute, it is a sizable space within the museum, occupying about 5,700 square feet.…