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Photographer, writer, and lecturer Lee Bey has used his experience as a Chicago native to help uncover, highlight, and preserve the historical significance and importance of architecture within Black communities. In 2017 Bey showcased Southern Exposure, an exhibition at... View full entry
The Obama Foundation announced yesterday the conclusion of a four-year-long federal review process for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), and intent to break ground on the Center in 2021. The City of Chicago has already scheduled the start of pre-construction work due for April, which will... View full entry
Blair Kamin, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, has announced that after 33 years, and nearly three decades in the role of the critic, he is leaving the paper. Kamin published this Twitter thread on Friday, January 8: 1/7 After 33 years at Chicago... View full entry
Kwong Von Glinow, the Chicago-based practice and 2018 Architectural League Prize winner, recently completed an intriguing residential project in the northern section of their hometown. The 3,100-square-foot Ardmore House reverses the conventional section of a three-story home by arranging the... View full entry
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) announces David Brown as the 2021 Artistic Director for its fourth edition: The Available City. According to CAB the concept and title of the Biennial asks the public "to consider the impact collective space can have in cities... View full entry
Sitting on nearly a half-acre of land, the 120-year-old faded yellow home, known as the Foster House and Stable, located at 12147 S. Harvard Ave., features steep roof peaks — something that wasn’t necessarily common in Wright’s designs — and has five bedrooms and three bathrooms. — Chicago Sun Times
The home sold for just under $200,000. The property was declared a Chicago landmark in 1996 and according to the city, "the house and its stable were constructed as a summer residence for Stephen Foster, an attorney who was a member of the real estate group that developed this portion of West... View full entry
A twin-towered residential development slated for the former Chicago Spire site on Lake Michigan has received formal municipal approvals and is now heading toward construction. The project, developed by Related Midwest and designed by SOM will bring 1,100 residential units to the site across... View full entry
Members of Chicago's architecture community have spoken out in recent days over the abrupt and unexplained departure of AIA Chicago Executive Vice President Zurich Esposito, a highly regarded figure in the city's professional community who is praised for undertaking a variety of successful... View full entry
There is an end in sight for a pair of years-long federal reviews of the Obama Presidential Center, and based on a Thursday briefing we now know City Hall will not insist on replacement land outside of Jackson Park to make up for the 19.3 acres the complex will occupy. — Chicago Sun Times
President Obama chose to build his presidential center in Jackson Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designed by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. This is what sparked the series of reviews around the project. Lyn Sweet... View full entry
Conceptual artist JB Daniel wants to transform a Chicago landfill site near the Calumet River into a sculpture park to house all of the toppled monuments from recent protests, reports The Art Newspaper. The artist proposes the statues be installed in their topped states with their... View full entry
New York City-based Terreform and Chicago community development nonprofit Blacks in Green are planning to moving ahead with the BIG Green Homestead project, a development that will bring community-owned sustainable housing and commercial spaces to the city's South Side. The project... View full entry
The City of Chicago has put out an RFQ seeking architects interested in working on small-scale commercial improvement projects within some of the city's "underserved neighborhoods." Describing the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund (NOF) initiative that is fueling the RFQ call, a city website explains... View full entry
Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, address issues from resiliency, mass timber, community engagement, residential design, art, public art, urban design, Palm Springs modernism and bamboo. Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation?... View full entry
Two of Chicago's most treasured architectural landmarks have been impacted by recent torrential rains that have battered the Midwest. The Chicago Tribune reports that flooding impacted the SOM-designed Willis Tower basement, which caused a building-wide power outage. The resulting blackout... View full entry
John LaPlante, a longtime city employee who served as the first commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, died Saturday at 80 after testing positive for the novel coronavirus less than two weeks earlier.
The son of a Cook County judge and the head librarian for the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. LaPlante was a “municipally minded” Roseland native who cared deeply about his city and its government, according to his daughter Leslie.
— Chicago Sun-Times
LaPlante worked for the City of Chicago for over 30 years, starting as an intern in the 1960s for what was then the city’s department of public works. He served as chief traffic engineer in the 1980s and as the city’s Transportation Commissioner in 1992. John LaPlante. Image courtesy of... View full entry