New Exhibition Shines a Light on George Fred Keck’s Solar Home of 1933

February 8, 2022 Ι Architectural Record  Chicago architect George Fred Keck (1895-1980) unlike many of his Modernist contemporaries, was a technocrat and tinkerer first and foremost. Long before the advent of solar panels, his solar homes sought to use new technology and materials to make architecture congruent with climate. His 12-sided House of Tomorrow, built in… Continue reading New Exhibition Shines a Light on George Fred Keck’s Solar Home of 1933

The restoration of Chicago’s former Pullman Company Town commemorates a pivotal site of progressive American labor

October 25, 2021 Ι Architect’s Newspaper When Andrea Terry, a principal at the Chicago architecture firm Bauer Latoza Studio began working on the renovation of the Pullman Administration Clock Tower Building in 2017, it had no floor, lots of racoons, and trees growing inside. “It was in a terribly sad state,” she said, a tragic… Continue reading The restoration of Chicago’s former Pullman Company Town commemorates a pivotal site of progressive American labor

Re-Shaped by Crisis, an “Anti-Biennial” Reimagines Chicago

Oct. 2, 2021 Ι Bloomberg CityLab  The 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial was held, like its two predecessors, in the Chicago Cultural Center, a sumptuous late-19th-century meeting hall in the downtown Loop. Two years later, rocked by Covid-19 and local protests against police violence, North America’s largest architecture and design show finds itself in very different surroundings.… Continue reading Re-Shaped by Crisis, an “Anti-Biennial” Reimagines Chicago

At MCA Chicago’s latest blockbuster, there’s more to comics than just the funnies

Oct. 1, 2021 Ι Architect’s Newspaper  The parallels between architecture and comics have not gone unremarked upon. There is, of course, a shared proclivity for world-building, as well as a reliance on grid, contour, line. But there’s one other point of commonality: both mediums tend to suffer when transplanted to the gallery context. That Chicago… Continue reading At MCA Chicago’s latest blockbuster, there’s more to comics than just the funnies

When Monuments Go Bad

June 7, 2021 Ι Bloomberg CityLab The stately eagle atop the 50-foot-tall fluted column of the Illinois Centennial Monument can be seen from blocks away. Located in the gentrifying Logan Square neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side, the memorial was designed by Henry Bacon and Evelyn Beatrice Longman and built in 1918 as an allegorical representation… Continue reading When Monuments Go Bad

Is this library politics?

April 28, 2021 Ι The Chicago Reader  Drive south on the Bishop Ford Expressway to Altgeld Gardens and you’ll pass plenty of reminders you’re in a landscape not meant for inquisitive visitors. There are looming grain silos next to a parked shipping freighter, a village-scaled water reclamation plant, and plenty of anonymous warehouses. But once you… Continue reading Is this library politics?

Design Trust Chicago seeks to address systems beyond structures

Architect’s Newspaper Ι December 30, 2020 The recently unveiled Design Trust Chicago will coordinate the work of Chicago’s activist designers, placing community, racial equity, and social justice ahead of for-profit, developer-led agendas. Publicly announced in November, the Design Trust was founded by Katherine Darnstadt of Latent Design, and Elle Ramel and Paola Aguirre of City… Continue reading Design Trust Chicago seeks to address systems beyond structures

In One of Chicago’s Most Affluent Neighborhoods, Hidden Stories of Resistance Unveiled By App

Next City Ι November 20, 2020 The Armitage-Halsted historic district in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood is renowned for its well-preserved collection of 19th-century architecture and commercial streetscapes, filled with Victoria-era ornamentation, pressed metal bays, and classic Chicago corner turrets. Today, Lincoln Park is a thoroughly gentrified site of winners-circle complacency; dog parks, stroller moms in… Continue reading In One of Chicago’s Most Affluent Neighborhoods, Hidden Stories of Resistance Unveiled By App

Chicago Teens Unveil Vision for Change and Public Safety in Their Neighborhood

Next City Ι Sept. 23, 2020 The Chicago teens enrolled in urban design non-profit Territory’s programs usually spend their time exploring public spaces, designing prototype installations, and building them in a studio. But with this summer’s COVID-19 lockdown, the youth-focused design, public art, and community planning organization founded in 2012 had to figure out how… Continue reading Chicago Teens Unveil Vision for Change and Public Safety in Their Neighborhood

Bertrand Goldberg’s Temple to Futures Past

Architect Magazine Ι March 2020 In October of 2013, Luis Collado and Jose Luis de la Fuente visited Wilbur Wright College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago’s seven campuses, located in the city’s far northwest side bungalow belt. Founders of the architecture firm STL Architects, who often work on education projects, they were interested… Continue reading Bertrand Goldberg’s Temple to Futures Past