Archinect - News

Yesomi Umolu appointed as 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial artistic director

2018-03-06T14:40:00-05:00

Chicago-based curator and writer Yesomi Umolu has been appointed as the artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will make its return on September 19, 2019 through January 5, 2020. After evaluating candidates from around the world and from various disciplines, the CAB board members and previous Artistic Directors selected Umolu.

Having strong roots in Chicago, Umolu has a background in architectural design and curatorial studies, and she focuses her work on global contemporary art and spatial practices. She is currently the Exhibitions Curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. She is also a visiting lecturer, critic, and has spoken at various international institutions.

Some of her recent exhibitions explore the politics of the built environment, like the “Kapwani Kiwanga: The sum and its parts”, “The Land Grant: Forest Law”, and “The Museum of Non Participation: The New Deal”.

Chicago Cultural Center. Photo cour...

Kwong Von Glinow Design Office is named the recipient of the 2016 Chicago Prize

2017-03-23T16:37:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Club named Lake Forest's Kwong Von Glinow Design Office the recipient of the 2016 Chicago Prize. This is a biennial prize given for the design of an international competition. This year's competition, titled On the Edge, asked architects and designers to rethink Lake Shore Drive's connection to Chicago's waterfront. Kwong Von Glinow Design Office's proposal, titled Lattices on the Drive, seeks to enhance the pedestrian's relationship to Lake Shore Drive. At each underpass which leads to the Lake, an access point at the media brings pedestrians up to a steel-frame viewing deck from which they can see the Lake, the city, and of course, Lake Shore Drive. An exhibition of their winning proposal will be in the lobby of the Chicago Architecture Foundation through June.

Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow co-founded Kwong Von Glinow Design Office in Chicago in 2016. Both partners earned their Masters of Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of D...

Send your ideas to the 2016 Chicago Prize “On the Edge” competition

2016-12-05T19:45:00-05:00

Visionary plans, policy, and infrastructure have all played crucial roles in the development of the city and consequently in the definition of its edge. Today, conflicting interests regarding ownership, use, and value of the Lakefront have produced a stalemate of what this civic treasure could become.

A hotspot for land-use disputes, the urban development of Chicago's Lakefront is the subject of the 2016 Chicago Prize competition, "On the Edge”. Launched on November 29 by the Chicago Architectural Club and the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the competition seeks speculative architectural interventions for the Lakefront “in consideration of the stated issues that imagine and speculate its scape” — as exemplified in recent situations like the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the Barack H. Obama Presidential Library, or the impacts of Lake Shore Drive.

The Chicago Lakefront. Photo: Payton Chung/Flickr.

The CAC asks: “Would new strategies of zoning recharge this long strip of stand-alone city-land? Can architectural interventions function as a framework for the excitation of the edge? How will the collision of the metropolis and the lake create a radical emergence of the unimaginable?”

There is no set program for this competition. A Question-and-Answer period is open now until December ...

Kinesis Honorable Mention 2013 Burnham Prize Competition

2013-06-24T11:56:00-04:00

This honorable mention was described by the jury as an elegant and sleek design with smart and innovative use of materials and good integration of elements.

KINESIS
Chicago BRT iconic stations design
Design Team: Natassa Lianou, Ermis Chalvatzis

Kinesis project, proposes dynamic and iconic light weight structures which land into the city of Chicago and create unique stations for the new BRT network. Since Chicago has a rich architectural and innovative engineering heritage, the BRT stations must consist contemporary statements of Chicago 's on-going evolution. Thus, the design is inspired from the speed and fluidity of contemporary urban life, while it presents a signature statement and brand identity of the BRT operation into Chicago streets.

The structure is consisted from the solid platform/ground, the roof/tensile membrane and the in-between glazing stripe, where these three elements blend together to produce extra features such as seating areas, ticket turnstiles, recycling bins, real-time passenger info display, landscape. Everything is connected and integrated into a unique design language able to represent the hig...