Conrad Sulzer Regional Library is one of two regional libraries in the Chicago Public Library system in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. It was named for Conrad Sulzer, the first white settler in what became Lakeview Township, whose family held multiple civic posts and established a foundation. The library is located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood at 4455 N. Lincoln Avenue. It is a full-service library and ADA compliant. As with all libraries in the Chicago Public Library system, it has free Wi-Fi internet service. Overview The current building was designed in 1985 by the architectural firm of Hammond Beeby and Babka, now known as Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge, Inc. Lead partner and Driehaus Prize winner, Thomas Hall Beeby (born 1941), was an Oak Park, Illinois, native who also was an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1973-1980) and director of the College of Architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle (1980-?). Its German neo-classical style reflects the local Germanic culture of its namesakes, as well as Chicago's noted German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The same firm also designed the Harold Washington Library. The $5.5 million, building replaced the Frederick H. Hild Regional Library, named for the second librarian of the Chicago Public Library, who secured its first permanent home (now the Chicago Cultural Center). The Hild Library's 1929 Art-Deco style building (a block away and half the size of its replacement) became a landmark and later a branch of the Old Town School of Folk Music. Alderman Eugene Schulter (47th ward) was instrumental in getting funding and political support for the new library, which opened to the public on September 14, 1985. Much of the library's furniture was custom-made with a German mythological theme. Sulzer family Conrad Sulzer (1804-1873) was born in Busenwang, Switzerland, in Thurgau Canton in northeastern Switzerland, the family having lived near Winterthur since before 1300 His father was a local Protestant minister. He studied locally and at Bonn University and Heidelberg University and initially planned to become a doctor or pharmacist. He received an apothecary's certificate in Winterthur, but never actually practiced either career. In 1833 he traveled to France and then the United States, first settling in the Swiss colony in Watertown, New York. He married Christine Young and applied for U.S. citizenship. They had their first child (Frederick) three months before they traveled via a Great