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The Chicago Architecture Center names Eleanor Gorski as its new CEO

2022-10-19T16:21:00-04:00

The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) has named a successor in its search to replace longtime President and CEO Lynn Osmond after her retirement in March.

Eleanor Esser Gorski will step into the Chief Executive's role with over 25 years of experience in architecture, historic preservation, and urban planning from her prior work for the city’s Department of Planning and Development (DPD), tenure as director of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, and recent academic appointment at the UIC School of Architecture .

“Eleanor has extensive experience working with communities, municipalities, and stakeholders to create community wealth,” former DPD colleague Maurice Cox said in a statement. “Her understanding of the power of design, practical experience in the field and ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes uniquely positions her to lead an organization like the CAC.”

Previously: Chicago Architecture Center President & CEO Lynn Osmond is s...

Don't miss 2019's best urban planning memes

2019-12-31T14:33:00-05:00

We've covered a sprawling variety of urban planning stories on Archinect this year, but as the new decade is mere hours away from the land of the densification-averse, we'd like to raise our glass and salute the fine people at Planning Peeps for tirelessly brightening our days with the memes even Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses would get a good chuckle out of.

Here is just a small selection of our favorites this year:

Longing for more? Find the complete treasure trove on the Planning Peeps Facebook page.

2018's best urban planning memes you didn't know you needed

2018-12-28T14:24:00-05:00

In dire need of urban planning memes on this last Friday of the year? Have we got a link for you: Planning Peeps has compiled 2018's gems trending among city planners and urbanism disciples.

Check out some of our favorites below and visit Parts 1 and 2 of the full list.

All images via Planning Peeps.

Watch an urban planner play SimCity with real world commentary

2018-08-17T14:45:00-04:00

In this extended short, City Beautiful takes on the old school classic SimCity from the perspective of a professional planner 20 years later. Along the way, City Beautiful provides pertinent observations of game play versus reality.

Urban Design Ph.D student Dave Amos circles back around to the game that sparked his passion as a kid playing computer games. An advocate for sustainable living and diverse cities, Amos plays through the old school SimCity game providing relevant insights learned over the years in his career.

Should city planners have to live in cities?

2014-08-15T14:06:00-04:00

Brad Buchanan spends his summer weekends, and some predawn mornings, atop an ATV checking on his cattle along Kiowa Creek. [...] But each weekday, Buchanan shifts gears... The weekend farmer who's also a longtime architect ... is five months into his job as Denver's head city planner. That juxtaposition — an Eastern Plains rancher responsible for making key decisions about Denver's increasingly dense urban footprint — has some critics of the city's building bonanza grumbling.

In that ancient fable of localized identity, a city-dwelling mouse and his country-dwelling cousin try out life in each other's shoes. There are countless versions of this story, found in civilizations from all over the world. Invariably, when each mouse visits his cousin, he feels uncomfortably out of place — the food is strange, it's not clear what's dangerous, life's pace isn't quite right — and is relieved to return home.

Regardless of whether these stories end by taking a side, favoring city-life over country-life or vice versa, they all concede the idea that some folks get along better in the place they're from, and that makes them less capable in the other place. This classic urban v. rural dichotomy doesn't seem to matter much in contemporary architecture practice. It's common in the global economy for a firm that's based in a dense city center to build a monument in a rural setting, or for developers to flip properties in China from their offices in Ottawa. If the design is ...