chicago architecture center

2021 chicago architecture biennial kicks off in a new format.

Sep 10, 2021

an architecture biennial unveils avant-garde ideas, materials, technologies and practices and serves as a forum for architects to make connections, collaborate with others and engage the public in issues and concerns in the field. the biennial also recognizes outstanding work in the industry.

the 2021 fourth edition of the chicago architecture bienniel kicks off 17 september organized in an entirely new format from previous years. all earlier editions were held at the chicago cultural center, an architectural masterpiece in itself, filling all three floors and greeting over 500,000 visitors in 2019.

because of the pandemic which affected long-established global venues, such as the venice architecture biennale, whose dates were put off twice — first, from may to august 2020, then to may 2021, chicago’s events will offer content within a neighborhood-centric format throughout the city.

the 2021 chicago event, titled the available city, builds on a chicago architecture professor’s long-term efforts to find creative uses for thousands of vacant city-owned lots. it will ask us to ponder how shared spaces, like community playgrounds, affect cities’ quality of life.

the biennial’s theme dovetails with mayor lori lightfoot’s $750 million “invest south/west” program to boost investment in struggling neighborhoods on the city’s south and west sides.

the mayor said in a news release, she was “thrilled” that the biennial “will be focused and grounded in our neighborhoods that can benefit from it the most.”

david brown, the 2021 chicago architecture biennial artistic director, is a professor at the university of illinois at chicago. brown participated in the inaugural 2015 biennial with an exhibition, also called the available city, which explored how 15,000 city-owned vacant lots could be transformed into usable public spaces rather than conventional reuses like urban farms.

above > david brown

since then, brown has worked with community-based organizations, connecting them with architects and designers to develop plans to turn individual lots or combinations of lots into small parks, plazas and buildings of various sizes.

this time around, the available city includes 15 site-specific architectural installations: located on public and private lots located in chicago’s neighborhoods of north lawndale, bronzeville, woodlawn, englewood, pilsen, collateral projects and the south loop. there are also two exhibition-based explorations located in an unused storefront space in bronzeville and at the graham foundation.

the host again is the graham foundation. and rather than starting from the ground up, the 2021 biennial will expand on brown’s work.

“that’s one of the reasons we’re really confident we can do this,” said sarah herda, the co-artistic director of the 2015 biennial and a member of the organization’s board. “we feel like it’s really a good moment” to reunite with brown and take his research forward, she said.

the biennial to date has featured models, drawings, installations and other work by more than 350 architects, designers and artists from more than 40 nations.

stressing that the 2021 biennial will seek to retain that international flavor, herda said the event might display projects from around the world that deal with issues like those brown has explored in his research.

out-of-town architects might communicate with chicago community groups via zoom or other online forums, she said.

the biennial’s first event will be an online conversation between brown and california landscape architect walter hood, winner of a macarthur foundation “genius” grant, who participated in the 2019 biennial.

as in previous years, the nonprofit organization that runs the biennial will present the event in cooperation with the chicago department of cultural affairs and special events.

the biennial becomes the second chicago architecture organization to shift from indoor activity to outdoor events and online platforms in response to the pandemic. the chicago architecture center presents it’s annual open house chicago, which normally gives participants access to the interiors of chicago buildings, is presenting outdoor and online tours.

[ contributors ]
ana miljački – critical broadcasting lab at mit (boston);
ania jaworska (chicago);
atelier bow-wow (tokyo);
borderless studio (chicago);
central park theater restoration committee (chicago);
christophe hutin architecture (bordeaux);
counterspace (johannesburg + republic of london + united kingdom)
craig wilkins (detroit);
departamento del distrito (mexico city);
drawing architecture studio (beijing);
el cielo (mexico city);
elleza kelly (new haven + new york);
englewood nature trail (chicago);
enlace arquitectura + ciudad laboratorio (caracas);
fala (porto);
gensler (stone soup group) (los angeles + chicago);
hood design studio (oakland);
in care of black women (chicago);
jill desimini (cambridge);
jovanna jackson (chicago);
maite borjabad lopex-pastor (chicago + madrid);
manuel hertz architecture (basel);
matri-archi(tecture) (basel + cape town);
michelle joan wilkinson (washington dc);
open architecture + under the grid (chicago);
outpost office (columbus);
port (chicago + philadelphia);
projecthood (chicago);
rayna rezmilic (santiago);
riff studio (new york city);
sekou cooke studio (charlotte);
shau (bendung);
soil lab (copenhagen + dublin);
sonja henderson and alphonso nieves (chicago);
stefan gruber (pittsburg);
studioapt (ann arbor);
studio barnes with shawhin roudbari and mas context (miami);
studio ossidiana (rotterdam + venice);
the bittertang farm (chicago + bainbridge island);
the open workshop (san francisco + toronto);
urban american city (new york city).

contributor/tokyo atelier bow wow

contributor/niger mariam kamara/a>

contributor/chicago ania jaworska

contributor/detroit craig wilkins

the graham foundation is pleased to present the available city, part of the fourth edition of the chicago architecture biennial (cab). this edition marks a new approach to the biennial model, bridging the traditional exhibition format to a deeper engagement with the community to expand access and impact. offering opportunities to discover installations, exhibitions, and programs that explore transformative possibilities for vacant spaces in communities worldwide.

visit the [ chicago architecture biennial ] to explore more about the biennial, what is on view throughout the city, and upcoming programs and events. look for DesignApplause to spell out these events in weekly separate articles.

[ upcoming programming! ] #cab21 #chicagoarchitecturebiennial

this is a developing story…

chicago architecture center presents ninth annual open house chicago.

Oct 17, 2019

the chicago architecture center‘s ninth annual open house chicago is a free public festival that offers behind-the-scenes access to an astonishing 350 venues including soaring skyscrapers, repurposed mansions, opulent theaters, exclusive private clubs, private offices and breathtaking sacred spaces all weekend long. here are a few suggestions…

[ park no. 571 boathouse ] photo below courtesy of studio gang architects
the weather this weekend is perfect to tour a boathouse on the chicago river! one of two boathouses on the chicago river designed by studio gang, the eleanor boathouse at park 571 completed in 2016, creates a crucial access point along the river’s edge. the structure’s shape draws inspiration from rowers’ rhythmic movements.

as the city works to transform the long-polluted and neglected river into its next recreational frontier, the boathouse invites communities on the south side and throughout the city to share in the river’s continued ecological and infrastructural revitalization. 2754 south eleanor street, bridgeport.

[ mccormick place west building rooftop farm ] photo below by garrett karp
the weather this weekend is perfect to tour a rooftop on the lakefront! the largest mccormick place west building spans 20,000 sq ft above chicago. the building, designed by tvsdesign in 2007, was originally intended to have a green roof for environmental purposes. however in 2013, the chicago botanic garden stepped in with the windy city harvest program to transform it into a massive vegetable patch. more than 8,000 pounds of produce are now grown each year for savor…chicago, the food service provider for the convention centre below. the open house chicago tour is focused on biodiversity and growing practices. 2301 south indiana avenue, gate 41, se corner of cermak & indiana.

[ unity temple ] photo below tom rossiter
unity temple, the work of master architect frank lloyd wright first major public building commission and considered to be one of the most important and influential buildings of the 20th century, underwent an extensive $25m restoration and renovation beginning in 2015. the temple re-opened in summer 2017. in summer 2019, unity temple was named a unesco world heritage site, one of eight major works by wright given this honoured distinction. 875 lake street, oak park.

[ stony island arts bank ] photo below steve hall
the stony island arts bank is a hybrid gallery, media archive, library and community center – and a home for rebuild foundation’s archives and collections. designed by william gibbons uffendell and built in 1923, the bank at 68th and stony island was once a vibrant community savings and loan. by the eighties, it had closed and the building remained vacant and deteriorating for decades. reopened in october 2015, the radically-restored building renovated by chicago social practice installation artist, theaster gates, serves as a space for neighborhood residents to preserve, access, reimagine and share their heritage – and a destination for artists, scholars, curators, and collectors to research and engage with south side history. 6760 south stony island avenue, south shore. enter via north door from garden

[ 150 north riverside ] photo below courtesy goettsch partners
audaciously cantilevered out over a new stretch of riverwalk, 150 north riverside commands attention as few recent buildings have. the glassy office tower’s 54 floors, carefully engineered to stand tall above busy rail lines, look down all three branches of the chicago river. the soaring lobby, whose enormous glass wall transparently connects indoors and out, is defined by 150 media stream, a one-of-a-kind achievement in art, architecture and technology. the piece’s 89 led blades, stretching 150 feet long and rising 22 feet high, display ever-changing collaborative artworks developed by local and international established and emerging artists, arts educators, and students.

why doesn’t this building topple over ? the building’s small lot plus the wish for 1.2 million square feet of office space gave the skyscraper an aspect ratio — the building’s height relative to the width of its core — is a breathtaking 20-1. if you ask does the building sway? the answer is you bet!

but not as much as it should because the engineers inserted two enclosed concrete vaults near the building’s top. the water in the vaults, which are called “tuned liquid dampers,” is not for swimming. when the wind pushes the high-rise one way, the water sloshes the other way, damping wind-induced sway.

architects/engineers: goettsch partners, and their structural engineers, seattle-based magnusson klemencic associates, 2017.

[ chicago architecture center ] photo below james steinkamp, courtesy cac
located in the 111 east wacker building, designed by the office of mies van der rohe, 1970. adrian smith + gordon gill architecture designed the new and current space in 2018. the chicago architecture center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring people to discover why design matters. the cac’s new home is a great place for locals and tourists alike to learn about chicago architecture and the pivotal role chicago has played in shaping architecture around the globe. exhibits include an expanded and immersive chicago city model experience, the building tall exhibit featuring large-scale models of notable skyscrapers, and more. 111 east wacker drive.

[ stay in the know ]
follow the chicago architecture center on facebook, instagram and twitter and use #ohc2019 to share photos of your ohc 2019 weekend. subscribe to ohc e-news for the latest announcements and important updates. #ohc2019

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