Firefighters found two separate fires burning around 5:43 a.m. Sunday inside a building on the 100 block of North Aberdeen Street in West Loop, a structure that by day operates as the Museum of Holography and by night and on weekends becomes Habibti, a Mediterranean restaurant and lounge. Chicago Fire Department officials are investigating the blazes as suspicious, and alleged threats are reported to have preceded the fires.
According to ABC7 Chicago, the Museum of Holography's president told the outlet that two people broke into the building to set the fires. Threats and video evidence connected to the incident are reportedly being shared with police and fire investigators as the case moves forward, per the same report. Officials say they continue to investigate the fires, and no cause or suspect information has been publicly confirmed beyond that account.
A Building With Deep Roots in Chicago Fire History
The building at 116 N. Aberdeen St. carries an unusual irony given the weekend's events: it was constructed 160 years ago as a Chicago Fire Department horse stable, according to historical background reported by Fooditor. The space later served as the food-truck commissary kitchen known as The Garage before its more recent transformation into a home for holographic art and Mediterranean dining.
City of Chicago business licensing records show the address holds municipal licenses for a retail food establishment, a public place of amusement, and on-premises consumption, according to the West Loop Business Directory. That licensing framework is what has allowed the site to legally run as both a free daytime museum and a nighttime lounge and kitchen.
A Rescued Holography Collection Finds a New Home
The Museum of Holography reopened at the Aberdeen Street address in April as a reinstated non-profit, offering free community tours and displaying 48 holograms from founder Loren Billings' family collection, according to a Facebook announcement from the museum. The collection has a long and complicated history: the museum was originally founded in 1974 at 1134 W. Washington Blvd. by Loren and Robert Billings and operated for more than three decades as the nation's only institution devoted exclusively to holographic art, according to Hyperallergic. Billings lost the original building and collection after her husband's death in 1998, and the museum shuttered amid financial fraud.
The collection sat abandoned in a damp West Loop basement for years until community organizer Moshe Tamssot launched a rescue mission in 2014, cataloging and securing dozens of rare laser art pieces before the collection's eventual resurrection on Aberdeen Street this year, Hyperallergic reported.
Neighborhood Friction Predates the Fires
The venue was already drawing scrutiny from city regulators before the weekend fires. In July, the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection held a community meeting addressing noise complaints and police service calls tied to the address, according to a post in a West Loop community Facebook group. That meeting focused on neighborhood oversight and public safety concerns surrounding the site's nightlife operations.
The block has also seen prior high-profile commercial property crime. In December 2023, thieves rammed a Jeep into luxury streetwear store SVRN at 171 N. Aberdeen St. in a crash-and-grab heist, part of a string of burglaries that hit the store three times in a single month, as Hoodline previously reported. That incident, along with the July regulatory meeting, underscores a pattern of security and oversight challenges on the block even before this weekend's fires.
What Comes Next for Investigators
Suspicious commercial property fires in Chicago are typically investigated jointly by the Chicago Fire Department's Office of Fire Investigation and the Chicago Police Department's Arson Section, which examine origin points, accelerants, and any threat evidence, according to Chicago Police Department procedures. Under Illinois law, knowingly damaging a real property structure by fire when damage exceeds $150 is a Class 2 felony punishable by three to seven years in prison, while aggravated arson carries Class X penalties of six to 30 years, per the Illinois General Assembly.
The fires arrive as Fulton Market and the West Loop continue rapid commercial transformation from industrial warehousing into upscale retail, dining, and residential development, a shift Hoodline has chronicled in coverage of nearby projects like the Aberdeen Crossing development. No injuries have been reported in connection with the fires, and officials say the investigation into the cause and those responsible remains ongoing.
