Bloomberg CityLab Ι June 29, 2022 In 2015, private equity giant Blackstone Inc. purchased the Willis (née Sears) Tower and began a half-billion-dollar renovation that would radically change the role the former tallest building in the world would play in downtown Chicago. Today, anyone — not just workers in the 108-story office tower — can sample from… Continue reading The Office Tower Has a New Job to Do
Tag: pandemic
How America’s Schools Got So Sick
Bloomberg’s CityLab Ι Sept. 25, 2020 This fall, the usual back-to-school anxieties have been coupled with a new one in the U.S., as wide swaths of the populace are desperately asking if their child’s classrooms can provide any level of safety. In many major U.S. cities, public school buildings remain fully or partially closed for… Continue reading How America’s Schools Got So Sick
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
Pillars of the Community
The Architect’s Newspaper Ι Sept. 4, 2020 As pandemic and lockdown settled over Los Angeles this past spring, urban design nonprofit LA-Más saw the positive outcomes of its projects abruptly reversed. The office’s “backyard homes” initiative, which installed Section 8 affordable housing in the backyards of assenting Angelenos, stalled, as the design team was unable… Continue reading Pillars of the Community
What Will Architecture Design Look Like After COVID-19? Flexible and Resilient
Autodesk’s Redshift Ι Aug. 20, 2020 Five months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that building for virus resilience and flexibility will be a fundamental element of architecture design going forward. A series of American Institute of Architects (AIA) reports (detailing schools, offices, retail, senior living, and health-care environments) offer a short-term, thorough examination of… Continue reading What Will Architecture Design Look Like After COVID-19? Flexible and Resilient
Three Walks in the Woods
The Chicago Reader Ι May 1, 2020 There’s an overpass hill that arches Lake Shore Drive over Foster Avenue where we could make camp and inflate the beach ball and spread out our snacks. It’s a space I’ve walked and driven by hundreds of times without a glance or a thought, but my four-year-old daughter… Continue reading Three Walks in the Woods
Will City Planning Become More Socially Equitable Post-Coronavirus?
Autodesk’s Redshift Ι July 9, 2020 A native of Chicago’s South Side, landscape architect and planner Ernie Wong of Site Design Group has designed parks in all quarters of the city, from affluent, gentrifying neighborhoods to the bulldozed sites of former public housing projects. Wong understands the roles parks play in radically different contexts and… Continue reading Will City Planning Become More Socially Equitable Post-Coronavirus?
5 Insights as Architects Lead Hospital Conversion for COVID-19 Response
Autodesk’s Redshift Ι April 21, 2020 In February 2020, Molly Scanlon—a licensed architect and environmental health scientist—started noticing curious videos of modular hospitals in Wuhan, China, for patients who had contracted a mysterious new virus. The hospitals were austere and institutional, bordering on factory-like, with wide, segmented bays. Prefabricated components were trucked on-site and slotted… Continue reading 5 Insights as Architects Lead Hospital Conversion for COVID-19 Response
Chicago’s Bid to Reinvent the Corner Store
Bloomberg’s CityLab Ι July 31, 2020 When it’s completed, the corner grocery store at 63rd and Racine will look a lot different than the other carryouts and bodegas dotting this section of Englewood, on Chicago’s South Side. Designed by Wheeler Kearns Architects and developed by local nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), the Go Green Fresh Market will essentially be… Continue reading Chicago’s Bid to Reinvent the Corner Store