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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 ...

2014 Chicago Prize winners envision the Obama Presidential Library

2015-02-13T18:06:00-05:00

Although an American president has the right to having a dedicated Presidential Library, it's no surprise that the museum-library-shrine typology can spark debate and criticism regarding its true civic purpose. As plans for the Barack Obama Presidential Library appear to slowly take shape, the Chicago Architectural Club organized the 2014 Chicago Prize ideas competition that invited architects to send their own speculative designs of the Obama Presidential Library. The latest competition aimed to initiate further discussion on how the presidential library typology can be reimagined.

At the end of the competition, the jury (listed at the bottom) selected two winners and three honorable mentions:

↓ WINNER: Zhu Wenyi, Fu Junsheng, and Liang Yiang

↓ WINNER: Aras Burak Sen

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

↓ Design Team: Dániel Palotai

↓ Design Team: Drew Cowdrey and Trey Kirk

↓ Design Team: Ann Lui and Craig Reschke

To find out more, click here.

2014 Chicago Prize Jury:
Andy Metter (Epstein); Brian Lee (SOM); ...

CALL FOR ENTRIES: What do you think the Obama Presidential Library should look like?

2014-11-17T21:51:00-05:00

The Chicago Architectural Club launched its 2014 edition of the Chicago Prize ideas competition this past weekend: design the Barack Obama Presidential Library! From the lively discussion (if not frenzy) surrounding a Barack Obama Presidential Library possibly being built, the Chicago Prize invites architects and designers to send ideas of how the U.S. Presidential Library building typology should be reinvented.

The Chicago Prize 2014 competition aims to spark debate on the typology of the presidential library. Speculative proposals will fulfill functions like housing a collection of artifacts and documents relating to the president’s life while also providing educational infrastructure and framework for outreach and community programs.

Entries are due by January 10, 2015. The winner will be announced and exhibited at an opening event at the Chicago Architectural Foundation in February 2015.

Now's the time to bring the best of your clever ideas to the table.