Archinect - News

Nick Cave collaborates with Studio Gang for "Here Hear Chicago", commissioned by Navy Pier

2017-08-23T15:03:00-04:00

A collaboration between the sculptor and performance artist Nick Cave and the architect Jeanne Gang on a site-specific work for Chicago’s Navy Pier is part of the ongoing transformation of the historic waterfront space from tourist trap into cultural destination.

The performance will involve dancers wearing Cave's silver-colored Soundsuits while interacting with objects designed by Studio Gang as a part of the setting. Fabricating a changeable stage that could be used for other performance groups, Gang was inspired by the idea of a clearing for traditional dances, deciding to define the space through designed objects, instead of treating the stage as an object in itself.

Since the pier extends 3,300 feet into the lake, buoys began to figure into Gang’s thinking. “Buoys move back and forth but they are on water; how do you do that in the land?” That led to the physics of self-balancing objects. The objects needed be soft, friendly, large-scale, and to fall down but not stay down. “Everything has an impact on the movement,” said Gang. “The visual impact of it, and the height, and the weight—it is all a balance.”

The collaborative artwork of Cave and Gang is a part of Here Hear Chicago, a performance series which opens on the pier during the fai...

Famed designer Jane Thompson dies

2016-08-24T14:19:00-04:00

The influential designer Jane Thompson passed away on Tuesday. Working fluidly across the fields of design, urbanism, and architecture, Thompson left a lasting mark on American visual culture.

Thompson started her career as the assistant curator at the Museum of Modern Art, then led by Philip Johnson. Afterwards, she helmed Industrial Design Magazine.

Thompson worked on the revitalization of Boston's Quincy Market alongside her husband, architect Benjamin Thompson. Other urban projects included the Chicago Navy Pier and the Grand Central Business District in New York.

One of Thompson's most influential endeavors was assisting her husband in operating the retail stores Design Research (D/R). Bring European designers like Alvar Aalto and Marikmekko into the United States, she helped introduce a generation of Americans to Scandinavian design. In a 2000 survey, D/R was named the number one design store, even after it had been closed for 22 years.

h/t Metropolis Mag

[Correction: originally th...

There's reason to celebrate Chicago's lakefront path project

2014-03-20T17:09:00-04:00

Great cities don’t rest on the laurels of their great public spaces. They make them greater. That’s what Chicago is doing here, despite the objections of naysayers who argued during the recession that the project was an unnecessary and unaffordable extravagance. But recessions come and go. We only cheat ourselves if we use downturns as an excuse to lower our sights and not build a better future. Now the future and better times are here.

Navy Pier remake adds urban park elements

2013-05-20T14:53:00-04:00

Some members of Chicago's design community have said privately that the Navy Pier project's parameters, which limited the scope of changes, stifled creative possibilities, even for highly regarded designers such as Corner. "Anything that makes it more parklike is all to the good," said eclectic Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman. "It can only go up, architecturally."

James Corner Field Operations’ Winning Design for Navy Pier Redesign

2012-03-20T14:14:00-04:00

The team led by James Corner Field Operations has been selected as the winner in the international Navy Pier Redesign Competition. The Pierscape concept is part of the larger vision for Chicago's famous Navy Pier called The Centennial Vision, which seeks to make the "People’s Pier a truly iconic and world-class destination as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2016."

The JCFO Team also included Terry Guen Design Associates, nArchitects, Leo Villareal, L’Observatoire International, Ed Marszewski, Fluidity, Patrick Blanc, John Greenlee & Associates, Chris Wangro, Billings Jackson, Buro Happold, Primera, HR&A Advisors, ETM Associates, Bruce Mau Design, and d’Escoto, Inc.

The winning proposal beat out stiff competition from the other four finalist teams, AECOM/Bjarke Ingels Group, Aedas Architects/Davis Brody Bond/Martha Schwartz Partners, !melk/HOK/Urban Lab, and Xavier Vendrell Studio/Grimshaw Architects.

Navy Pier redesign finalists loaded with talent

2011-12-02T14:21:50-05:00

If bookmakers put odds on architecture, they surely would have made Chicago architect Jeanne Gang one of the favorites to win the big design competition to remake the public spaces of Navy Pier. [...] But when Navy Pier officials winnowed 11 semifinalist teams to a list of five finalists last week, Gang, surprisingly, lost out. And she wasn't the only high-profile name who didn't make the cut.

Navy Pier picks five teams to compete for redesign of pier's public spaces

2011-11-23T20:05:59-05:00

The five teams, which include a mix of architects, urban designers, landscape and other designers, are headed by the firms AECOM, Aedas Architects, James Corner Field Operations, and the Xavier Vendrell Studio, the only team headed by a Chicagoan. The fifth team, known as !melk, includes the large firm HOK.

Navy Pier kicks off international search for design team to remake its public spaces

2011-09-01T13:03:50-04:00

Hoping to lure top talent to remake Navy Pier, pier officials on Thursday began an international search for a team of architects and other designers who will re-imagine the pier's outdoor public spaces as part of a broader revamp of the facility.