Between 1894 and 1913 Judge Lambert Tree and his wife, Anna built Tree Studios as an artists’ colony in the backyard of their Wabash Avenue mansion. Ardent supporters of the arts, the Trees constructed the studios following the 1893 World’s Fair in hopes of enticing visiting artists to stay. Over one hundred years later, Friedman Properties refurbished the buildings and courtyard of Tree Studios creating an oasis in downtown Chicago that is now home to a variety of office and retail tenants and the Ivy Room event space.