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Making its return later this year, the third edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial will go beyond design to address questions of land, memory, rights and civic participation. Announced yesterday, the theme "...and other stories" has been picked by this year's artistic director, Yesomi... View full entry
The recently concluded 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial saw over 550,000 visitors. Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, of the LA-based firm Johnston Marklee, selected 140 architects and designers from 20 countries to participate. Among the vast number of attendees the biennial also... View full entry
Many non-architects have found it difficult to understand the show, which is titled “Make New History” and displays more than 140 designs from over 20 countries at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. The wall labels, which are supposed to help viewers understand what they’re seeing, are often written in jargon-laced archi-babble. Without guides to translate, many visitors would be lost. It’s the equivalent of putting a hurdle between the audience and the material. — The Chicago Tribune
Disengaged from the public, inaccessible, and impenetrable are just some of the newly minted adjectives being used to describe Chicago's second Architecture Biennale, Make New History. This should not come as a surprise, the show has had a lackluster reception on multiple fronts and while the... View full entry
Its forms are basic, totemic: Euclidean shapes dredged from the long memory of the field. It sometimes relies on modules or grids. It’s often monochromatic. It’s post-digital, which means it rejects the compulsion to push form-making to its absolute limits that overtook architecture at the turn of the century. As a result, it sometimes looks ancient or even primordial. It never looks futuristic. — LA Times
Famed LA Times architectural critic, Christopher Hawthorne, released his view of contemporary architecture that culminates in it being classified as boring, and yet, that might be exactly what the architectural discipline ordered. As a reaction to 'hyperactive form-making,' Hawthorne argues that... View full entry
Christopher Hawthorne interviews Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee about this year's Chicago Architecture Biennial. The two reflect on the theme of the biennial—'Make New History'—and their role as curators. Hawthorne: What attracted you to history as a guiding idea for this biennial? Lee... View full entry
Returning to the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial is Athens-based architecture studio Point Supreme. Known for their signature rendering style of collage, which produce colorful tableaus weaving together historical elements, memories and dreams from their native city, the... View full entry
“Who owns what? And why?” Despite their apparent simplicity, these questions strike at the heart of the disparities and violences that mark the contemporary city. Raised by the architecture studio Brandlhuber and the artist Christopher Roth, they also summarize neatly the work on display: a... View full entry
By now, it’s a relatively familiar narrative: over the course of the last few decades, there's been a mass return to urban centers from their outskirts, resulting in a field of abandoned strip malls and big box stores. What to do with these contemporary “ruins,” however, remains an open... View full entry
With a soundtrack that could be described as whimsical and an aesthetic outlook that encompasses both the old and the new, a video preview of 2017's Chicago Architecture Biennial (which will transpire simultaneously with EXPO CHICAGO this year) is now available for your viewing pleasure: View full entry
The 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial will be open to the public and on view from September 16, 2017, through January 7, 2018 at the Chicago Cultural Center, located in downtown Chicago. The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) announces special projects, including a SO-IL and Ana Prvački... View full entry
The Chicago Architecture Biennial, curated this year by the Los Angeles-based studio Johnston Marklee, has announced that it’s teaming up with six museums and institutions that will serve as “Community Anchor” sites. In short, these sites will host events, exhibitions and programming... View full entry
The 1922 contest drew 263 entries from 23 countries and led to the construction of a landmark neo-Gothic skyscraper. In 1980, Chicago architects Stanley Tigerman and Stuart Cohen organized a "Late Entries" version of the legendary contest...Now, the curators of this year's Chicago Architecture Biennial are putting together what might be called the "Late Late Entries" to the Tribune Tower competition. — Chicago Tribune
Although the names of the sixteen designers picked to create a new "Tribune Tower" at the Chicago Architecture Biennial haven't been announced quite yet, according to this article their designs are already being value-engineered in order to be as feasible as possible for potential construction... View full entry
Preparations for the second Chicago Architecture Biennial are in full swing, with the big reveal of the 2017 participants today. Titled “Make New History” and with Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee as Artistic Directors, the 2017 roster has the names of over 100 firms — many of them well-known... View full entry
As part of its ongoing Riverline community project, Perkins+Will has proposed an entirely conceptual 80-story, 300 unit residential skyscraper made from timber called the River Beech Tower. Announced 145 years after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, this proposed tower would feature a massive... View full entry
The Chicago Architecture Biennial and Mayor Rahm Emmanel announced the curators of the second iteration of the Biennial: the Los Angeles-based firm Johnston Marklee. The studio, which comprises Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, will be assisted by Todd Palmer of the National Public Housing Museum, who... View full entry
