News & Features

El manifiesto vivo de Al Borde en la Bienal de Arquitectura de Chicago
Glenda Puente, Plataforma Arquitectura, February 17, 2016

Como una imagen de sí mismos, bajo el argumento de “somos lo que hacemos”, la firma de arquitectura Al Borde convirtió una casa en construcción en un manifiesto vivo para la edición inaugural de la Bienal de Arquitectura de Chicago.

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The Inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial: 10 highlights from this first-ever wonder
Liz Chilsen, Chicago Now, February 10, 2016

The first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial ended last month, and I must say I was sad to see it go. By any stretch, the Biennial was a rocking success. Thousands of people came, hundreds of architects participated, millions of conversations, discussions, presentations, debates… This is the great success of the thing. People engaged. And in that exchange, ideas can be born, new things come afoot.

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Making Space: A Visit to the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Dave Kim, Harper's Magazine, January 28, 2016

The elevated was clacking and roaring, and a lake wind, misty and brisk, was pushing through the limestone corridors of the Loop. The sky was knotted with clouds. I’d come to the city for the opening of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, where more than a hundred architects and artists, from some thirty countries, had been invited to present work in a variety of mediums at sites around the city.

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What I Learned When the Chicago Architecture Biennial Came to the South Side
Paola Aguirre, Next City, January 21, 2016

Earlier this month, Chicago took in its last glimpses of the city’s first architecture biennial. An outgrowth of the City’s Cultural Plan and drawing more than half a million visitors over three months, the biennial enabled a vast network of spaces where different approaches and roles of architecture and design in communities were brought to multiple audiences.

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Why the Chicago Architecture Biennial Mattered
Jen Masengarb, Chicago Architecture Foundation, January 19, 2016

At 2015’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, local teens gained new design insight, met with working architects, and fell in love with the Chicago Cultural Center itself. And CAF was there every step of the way. As early January, 2016, brought a close to the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, architectural critics—including Blair Kamin, Lynn Becker, Edward Keegan—began to sum up the broader influence of the 3-month exhibition, which drew more than 500,000 visitors.

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2015 YEAR IN REVIEW
The Editors, The Architect's Newspaper, January 14, 2016

We curate our news section from the pages of our four regional issues along with exclusive web articles and interviews. 2015 heard a lot of discussion on the current role of architecture in society thanks to the inaugural Chicago Biennial, as well as how cities are tackling ever-pressing population and environmental concerns. Take a look at the stories AN's readers clicked on most last year.

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Giancarlo Mazzanti’s “Speaking Architecture” Exhibit at The Chicago Biennial Gives a Voice to the Visitors
Katie Watkins, ArchDaily, January 14, 2016

In response to the question posed by the curators of the Chicago Architecture Biennial – what is The State of the Art of Architecture today? -- Colombian firm El Equipo de Mazzanti (Giancarlo Mazzanti) developed their exhibition “Speaking Architecture,” which looks at architecture as “a living process rather than a finished and static object.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial attracts more than double the attendees of Venice Biennale
Alan Brake, Dezeen, January 7, 2016

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: organisers of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial have counted more than 500,000 visitors and the city has renewed its commitment to host another edition in 2017. The biennial drew a total of 530,551 visitors, which includes totals from the Chicago Cultural Center main venue (276,806), the Stony Island Arts Bank (8,100), the Lakefront Kiosks, and dozens of offsite events throughout the city and the larger region.

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Chicago launches its first Architecture Biennial
CBS News, Sunday Morning, January 3, 2016

Time now to salute one American city's towering achievements. We speak of Chicago, and a skyline that attracts admirers by the boatload. With Anna Werner, we join the sightseers: If Broadway hits the heights, and Hollywood tops the box office, then you might say Chicago towers above them all -- for its architecture. Considered the birthplace of the modern skyscraper, the city has made architecture one of its main tourist attractions.

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Game Changers 2016: Sarah Herda
Anna Kats, January 1, 2016

Administrators and curators often speak different languages. The director of the Graham Foundation is fluent in both, as she has proven by spearheading Chicago’s inaugural architectural biennial.   Make no mistake: Sarah Herda is not a curator.

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Procedural Geometry: an interview with Aranda\Lasch
Nick Cecchi, Archinect, December 22, 2015

Since founding Aranda\Lasch in 2003, Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch have pursued their own uncompromising vision of architectural practice. Driven by computation and a fascination bordering on obsession with process, Aranda\Lasch has turned out some of the most exceptional architectural geometry on this side of Neil Denari. With offices in Manhattan and Tucson and projects on the boards around the world, they have cemented their place at the forefront of cutting edge architectural practice.

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Next Up Mini-Session #16: TOMA
Nicholas Korody, Archinect News, December 18, 2015

For our final Mini-Session from the Next Up series, Nicholas Korody interviews TOMA, a Santiago-based collective. TOMA build politically-charged social spaces, using design as a strategy for bringing people together rather than as an end in itself.

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Zak Group disegna Chicago | Zak Group ha lavorato sull’identità visiva della Biennale di Chicago usando il modulo della griglia, emblematica sia del piano urbanistico cittadino che della pratica architettonica.
domus, December 17, 2015

Lo studio londinese Zak Group è stato scelto come direttore artistico della prima Biennale di Architettura di Chicago. Il progetto grafico di Zak Gruoup per la Biennale di Architettura di Chicago è stato concepito come una griglia volutamente contraddittoria, in grado di sostenere una serie dinamica di contenuti tra cui ricerche, progetti e dichiarazioni sullo stato dell’arte dell’architettura.

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A pair of Messiahs, last chance for Architectural Biennial
Hank Sartin, Crain's Chicago Business, December 16, 2015

You've been hearing about the Chicago Architectural Biennial all fall. If you haven't done anything about it yet, you still have time to see some public events or check out the impressive exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. It's sprawling, taking over all of the center's public spaces, so you can either dip in judiciously or settle in for an in-depth examination of the state of architecture, present and future.

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The State of the Art of Architecture, According to Sarah Herda
Frances Anderton, KCRW – DnA, December 16, 2015

If you are in the Chicago area for the holidays, go check out the Chicago Architectural Biennial, the first of its kind for the city that loves its buildings. Sponsored by BP, warmly promoted by Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, CAB was curated by Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima and offers a look at nothing less than the “state of the art of architecture” at this point in the 21st century – and it comes to an end in early January, 2016.

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Q+A> ZAHA HADID | AN sits down with Zaha Hadid after her lecture in Chicago to discuss the importance of drawing, her first building in New York, and her thoughts on the Biennial.
Olivia Martin, The Architect's Newspaper, December 15, 2015

The enthusiasm surrounding Zaha Hadid onstage was raw: Notebooks flying, selfies snapping, people demanding if Hadid reads their e-mails. It was a strong reminder that regardless of any controversy, her influence is epic and expanding. Last Thursday, the Chicago Architecture Biennial hosted a public conversation between Zaha Hadid and Jonathan D.

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Steven Holl Collaborates with Jessica Lang Dance Company
Fred A. Bernstein, Architectural Record, December 1, 2015

The relationship between architecture and dance—the art of creating spaces and the art of navigating spaces—is fertile territory. Previous explorations have included Isamu Noguchi’s highly architectural sets for Martha Graham, and Merce Cunningham’s performances at Philip Johnson’s Glass House. Now Steven Holl, whose architectural forms can be as fluid as a dancer’s limbs, has collaborated with the Jessica Lang Dance Company on a 20-minute piece called Tesseracts of Time.

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Chicago boldly imagines its own definition of what a biennial might be
Sam Jacob, Dezeen, November 29, 2015

This is the age of "inalification". Every city, every form of creative practice – at vast expense and even greater effort – mounts gigantic productions that celebrate... well, what exactly? Prefixed as Bienns and Trienns, these events marshall entire disciplines, command acres of physical space and even more media space.

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DAY 37 & 38: THE SHEEN OF THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL HAS NOT WORN OFF AS PROGRAMMING CONTINUES TO IMPRESS
Matt Shaw, The Architect's Newspaper, November 19, 2015

Often, there’s a blast of attention for the opening of a Biennial, or Biennale, or Triennale. This happens partly because the media descends on a place for the first few days while opening events abound, and then go back on their merry ways.

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Everybody Dance Now: Steven Holl Collaborates for Dance at the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Matt Shaw, The Architect's Newspaper, November 17, 2015

One of the more unusual things I heard when preparing for the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) was a tip from someone involved that there was going to be “a ballet about Steven Holl.” I was obviously excited about this prospect, and I finally got to see the final results last Friday. It may not have been exactly about Steven himself, but it was close. It turns out that CAB co-artistic director Sarah Herda had dreamed up a pairing in the initial stages of planning the Biennial.

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Flipping the Script | What does camping have to do with cities?
William Richards, Architect Magazine, November 15, 2015

Lola Sheppard and Mason White are the principals of Lateral Office, a design and research firm based in Toronto since 2005. The firm ranges from two to eight staff (depending on the project), but its areas of research and practice have remained consistent: bridging the gap between traditional and contemporary life, permeable political borders, and questioning conventional categories of architectural design.

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Architect Jeanne Gang's vision expands from the skyscraper to the police station
Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune, November 13, 2015

The gritty 10th Police District on the West Side might be the last place you'd expect to command the attention of the ever-more-prominent Chicago architect Jeanne Gang. Vacant lots pockmark rows of tattered single-family houses and apartment buildings. In the last 90 days, the district recorded more than 360 violent crimes, making it the seventh-most violent of Chicago's 22 police districts.

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Two-Point Perspective | Making architecture accessible through drawing
William Richards, Architect Magazine, November 12, 2015

Norman Kelley is an architecture and design firm comprised of Carrie Norman, formerly a senior design associate at SHoP Architects, and Thomas Kelley, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture. Their project for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, “Chicago, How Do You See?”, centers on architecture’s genesis in fine motor skills and representation.

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Chicago's Architecture Biennial: The Best of a Building Buff's Dream Event
Julia M. Klein, The Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2015

Learn about the past, present and future of architecture at this sprawling celebration that cements Chicago’s stature as a powerhouse of glass and steel.  FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, Louis Sullivan and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe—among America’s first starchitects—each left his mark on Chicago, undergirding the city’s claim as the birthplace of modern architecture.

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Wax Works | Frank Lloyd Wright and SC Johnson
Herbert Wright, Uncube Magazine, November 4, 2015

Over eleven years during the first half of the twentieth century, two heavyweights of architecture and industry collaborated to construct a modern office complex that still exerts an architectural legacy today way beyond just the design of the office environment. Frank Lloyd Wright met H.F. Johnson Jr. – head of the cleaning products company SC Johnson – in 1936 and together they set about creating the Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin.

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This Apartment is Designed to Pop Up in Parking Lots or Abandoned Buildings
Adele Peters, Co.Exist, November 4, 2015

This house is so easy to move, it's like picking up a suitcase. If you can't afford an ordinary apartment, maybe you can try living in a parking lot. Even a Google employee is already doing it, leaving the rest of us mere mortals resigned to our fate.

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Tatiana Bilbao: What architects can learn from nature
BBC, November 2, 2015

Tatiana Bilbao tells Jonathan Glancey about what architects can learn from nature’s organic processes – and the lessons they have for us as citizens too. The architect Tatiana Bilbao grew up in the densely packed urban environment of Mexico City. And yet despite, or perhaps because of this, her practice is concerned with integrating lessons from nature.

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Critique: Chicago Architecture Biennial | Chicago's first biennial speaks to sustainability, social justice, and the public realm
Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Architectural Record, November 1, 2015

From ArchDaily to Treehugger, a virtual wonderland of websites devoted to architecture, design, and urbanism are piling gigabytes of information atop that generated by publications like architectural record, which also command a significant online presence. Much good has come from this World Wide Web–based cornucopia, even if its abundance does feel overwhelming. Contemporary architecture is vibrant.

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Iwan Baan: Architecture photos that put people in focus
BBC, October 28, 2015

Iwan Baan is an architectural photographer but his buildings are as concerned with people as they are with buildings. He talks to Jonathan Glancey from the Chicago Architecture Biennial. A 2013 exhibition by the Dutch architectural photographer Iwan Baan was entitled The Way We Live – a perfect summary of the essence his pictures capture.

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Biennial Dispatch: Andrés Jaque's Superpowers of Ten
Janelle Zara, Architectural Record, October 27, 2015

The architect addresses "unspeakable topics" in architecture by riffing an Eames classic.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial | The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial looks at ways smart design can solve the world's problems.
Julie Iovine, The Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2015

Given all the venues for viewing ambitious architecture, do we really need the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, touted in press materials as “the largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America”? The answer, counter-intuitively, is yes. While other exhibitions have tended to attract government money and marquee talent aimed at addressing esoteric curatorial themes, the Chicago biennial (through Jan.

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Radical Visions of Chicago's Future Skyline
Sam Lubell, Wired, October 18, 2015

MANY OF THE designs on display at the first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial could be implemented anywhere. But the event’s creative team was thinking of the Windy City, specifically, when it organized BOLD: Alternative Scenarios For Chicago, a collection of radical, Chicago-centric proposals from more than a dozen local offices. The show-within-a-show was organized by Iker Gil, director of local firm MAS Studio.

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2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial
Caroline Williamson, Design Millk, October 16, 2015

Recently, we took off for Illinois to check out the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, which brought together dozens of experimental and groundbreaking architects and designers in various parts of the city, most notably, the Chicago Cultural Center. Chicago is well-known for its architectural landmarks so it only makes sense that the exhibition takes place there.

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The humanity of the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Archinect, October 13, 2015

As anticipation rumbled towards the opening of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, excitement and reservation came hand in hand. The eclectic mix of over 120 participating firms, coming from over 30 countries, made the snapshot of the profession appear, depending on your side of the spectrum, as a vibrant collage full of diverse applications, or frayed and vacillating.

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Stanley Tigerman on the Chicago Architecture Biennial: "I am stunned, if not thrilled"
Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Archinect, October 10, 2015

Stanley Tigerman, the Chicago architect whose 1977 conference, "The State of the Art of Architecture," became the namesake for the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, has issued a statement effusively praising the Biennial's execution.

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In Chicago, an ambitious biennial for architecture banishes the stars and anoints a new generation
Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2015

The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, which opened to the public last weekend with an ambitious collection of gallery installations, performances, talks and tours scattered across the city, does not have an official theme. The artistic directors, Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda, wanted to keep the exhibition as elastic as possible, the better to accommodate the wide-ranging eclecticism, or maybe the skittish uncertainty, of the current moment in architecture.

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At the New Chicago Architecture Biennial, Eight Amazing Projects to Get You Thinking
Samuel Cochran, Architectural Digest, October 8, 2015

Ah, Chicago—land of the Prairie School, birthplace of the skyscraper, and now, fittingly, home to the world’s largest display of contemporary architecture. Last week the Windy City rolled out the red carpet for the opening of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, which remains on view through January 3.

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5 Big Ideas From The Chicago Architecture Biennial
Diana Budds, Fast Company, October 8, 2015

HOW DESIGN COULD HEAL THE FRACTURED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE AND POLICE AND OTHER KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL. It's safe to say that architecture and Chicago's history are inextricably linked. The city was the stomping grounds of Bauhaus great Mies van der Rohe. Frank Lloyd Wright had his home and studio in Oak Park. Louis Sullivan built some of the world's first skyscrapers there.

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Q+A> HOW SOON IS NOW? | Chicago Architecture Biennial co-curator Joseph Grima on the importance of architectural agency.
Mimi Zeiger, The Architect's Newspaper, October 6, 2015

During the opening days of the Chicago Architectural Biennial, as first the press and then the public (including some irascible architects) filed through the Chicago Cultural Center to see the dozens of projects on view, AN’s Mimi Zeiger sat down with Joseph Grima, co-curator of the inaugural exhibition, to discuss the urgencies of architectural practice.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial inspires Perkins + Will design contest
Sarah Ehlen, Crain's Chicago Business, October 6, 2015

For 12 years, Chicago architecture firm Perkin's + Will's Design Leadership Council has hosted an internal competition among their young, emerging designers, challenging them to seek solutions to urban and environmental problems. Now, the council is teaming up with the Chicago Architecture Biennial to turn the competition outward and share it with the greater design community.

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A Dilapidated Bank Turned Stunning Cultural Center Opens in Chicago's South Side
Kristin Hohenadel, Slate, October 6, 2015

Theaster Gates is an artist, urban planner, and professor and director at the University of Chicago’s Arts and Public Life who believes in a culturally driven approach to urban redevelopment. Gates’ Rebuild Foundation has transformed vacant houses and former housing projects into cultural and arts spaces on Chicago’s South Side. His latest and most ambitious project opened to the public on Saturday as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

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CultureZohn: Chicago Shows Off
Patricia Zohn, Huffington Post, October 6, 2015

Chicago is tired of being flown over. It is tired of being called the third coast. It is tired of being known for its fierce wind, multiple members of the Daley family, and the Mob. It is tired of being called the Second City, however successful the graduates of that august comedy workshop. To tout its riches, to encourage tourism, and to get its own citizens to stop apologizing for goodness sake, it has undertaken a number of initiatives to correct what they see as the hunched shoulder effect.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial secures the city's place as a mecca for building buffs
Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian, October 5, 2015

With the police stations of tomorrow and $9,000 extendable homes, Chicago’s first Biennial is a diverse pick’n’mix of architecture today. But why won’t it engage with the city in a more meaningful way? Birthplace of the elevator, cradle of the skyscraper and home to more Frank Lloyd Wright buildings than you could ever want to visit, Chicago has long been America’s mecca for architecture nerds.

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A stage for musical improvisation puts a spotlight on reused building materials
Kate Walker, Design Indaba, October 5, 2015

Italian architecture company, Studio Albori, looks at "reuse and improvisation" in building with its Makeshift installation at Chicago Architecture Biennial.  A single space becomes something entirely different when it is temporarily occupied and transformed by an installation.

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10 Instagrams to Get You Excited for the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Asad Syrkett, Curbed, October 2, 2015

The first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial opens to the public this week in the birthplace of the skyscraper (that's right—sorry New Yorkers!) but the press has been swarming about, 'gramming highlights for those waiting with bated breath. From exhibitions, installations, and performances, to panels and lectures, the event showcases a wide swath of creativity in the architecture world, old and new.

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It’s all in the process: a new show explores the work of Richard Meier
Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper*, October 2, 2015

A new show at Chicago’s Mana Contemporary looks into the process behind some of Richard Meier’s most iconic work. 'Richard Meier: Process and Vision', which opens this weekend as part of the opening festivities of the very first Chicago Architecture Biennale, explores contrasts and different approaches within the architect’s designs and artwork.

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The Top Ten Ways to Experience Chicago's First Architecture Biennial
Hunter Braithwaite, Conde Nast Traveler, October 2, 2015

North America’s first global look at contemporary architecture is, fittingly, happening in Chicago this month: From the first skyscraper on, the metropolis has led the country in how we think about, build, and live in cities. Free and open to the public from October 3 to January 3, 2016, the premiere Chicago Architectural Biennial (CAB) celebrates this history, and brings together more than 100 theorists and practitioners from 30-plus countries in a raucous, speculative look forward.

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The Chicago Architecture Biennial opens this weekend
Deanne Isaacs, Chicago Reader, October 2, 2015

Chicago's bid for a spot on the global biennial circuit is getting its rollout this weekend.   The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial—"the largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America"—opens to the public Saturday for a three-month run. The Chicago Cultural Center is the major venue for the event, which features the work of more than 100 architects from 30 countries. Admission to the Cultural Center and to most of the Biennial programs is free.

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At the Chicago Architecture Biennial, 99 Architects Answer, "What's Urgent?"
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, The Architect's Newspaper, October 2, 2015

The day started with a marathon session involving all participants in the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, celebrated curator at the Serpentine gallery in London, together with Sarah Herda, director of the Graham Foundation, and architect Joseph Grima, both Chicago Biennial directors, asked 99 architects one simple question: What is urgent? Every participant had 15 seconds to speak, followed by impromptu questions by the curators.

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MOS architects presents corridor house at the chicago architecture biennial
designboom, October 2, 2015

on the occasion of chicago’s inaugural architecture biennial, new york-based MOS architects has constructed ‘house no.11 (corridor house)’ — a full-scale dwelling comprising several individual components. each of these orthogonally positioned modules approximates the dimensions of a standard corridor and a sheet of plywood measuring 5×10 feet, (1.5×3 meters).

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First Chicago Architecture Biennial is a “site of experimentation” say curators
Amy Frearson, Minimal Blogs, October 2, 2015

The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial opens to the public this weekend. Speaking at a preview today, curators Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima said the exhibition showcases architects who are carving out new ways to practice. "We really see the exhibition as a site of experimentation," Herda told journalists. "This is not a place to look at pictures of buildings, it's a place to figure out the future of buildings.

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Chicago travel tips: Where to go and what to see in 48 hours
David Whitley, Independent, October 2, 2015

As its first architectural biennial opens to visitors, David Whitley is blown away by the Windy City's landmark buildings and more modern innovations. Travel essentials Why go now? The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial (chicago architecturebiennial), a celebration of all things architectural and a showcase for new ideas in building design, kicks off on Saturday in this city of staggering buildings, and runs until 3 January 2016.

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What to See at the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Opening Weekend
Jason Foumberg, Chicago Magazine, October 2, 2015

Chicago isn’t holding back for its first Architecture Biennial, titled The State of the Art of Architecture, which will take over the city for three months starting this weekend. Modeled after the Venice Biennale and organized by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and the Graham Foundation, the behemoth event is like the Olympics for architecture. It’s an international spectacle of bravura meant to flaunt the city’s commitment to pushing the envelope.

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Check Out Awesome South Shore Drill Team at Fed Plaza Today at 5:30, 6
David Matthews, DNAinfo, October 2, 2015

Loop commuters who walk by Federal Plaza can see not one, but two shows Friday afternoon.  The South Shore Drill Team will perform five-minute sets at 5:30 and 6 p.m. Friday at the plaza, 230 S. Dearborn St. The drill team, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, teamed up with Los Angeles-based architect Bryony Roberts for the performances, which are part of the three-month Chicago Architecture Biennial kicking off this weekend.

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The Chicago Architecture Biennial Issue
Ben Schulman, NewCity, October 1, 2015

“We shall leave, for remembrance, one rusty iron heart.” —Nelson Algren, “City on the Make” What’s rattling around that rusty heart some fifty years hence Algren’s lovingly caustic sendoff? For some, a boomtown of glass-sheathed skyscraping ambition and beautifully manicured space. For others, a city on the brink, potholed with equal parts resilience and resilient decay. Maybe not so much has changed.

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The Month Ahead: Chicago Hosts Inaugural Architecture Biennial + Design Auctions Hit London, L.A., and Chicago
Alex Gilbert, Artsy, October 1, 2015

There’s still time to catch “James Hyde: Varieties of Experience” before it closes on the 17th at Volume Gallery. The show brings design objects like tables and chairs into the same domain as the paintings that adorn the gallery’s walls. Headed up by Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda, the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial opens on the 3rd and runs through January 3rd.

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Rural Urban Framework awarded Curry Stone Design Prize at Chicago Architecture Biennial
Dezeen Magazine, October 1, 2015

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015: Hong Kong design and research group Rural Urban Framework has been awarded the 2015 Curry Stone Design Prize for humanitarian architecture. The non-profit research and design lab – established at The University of Hong Kong – was presented with the $100,000 (£66,117) award during a ceremony ahead of the official opening of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial.

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aranda\lasch presents budidesa art park at the chicago architecture biennial
Philip Stevens, designboom, October 1, 2015

on the occasion of the inaugural chicago architecture biennial, aranda\lasch has unveiled plans for a contemporary arts complex in bali. designed for budi tek, a chinese-indonesian entrepreneur, ‘budidesa art park’ comprises a series of art gardens, exhibition spaces and a residence surrounded by terraced rice paddies on a site located just north of denpasar, the country’s capital city.   ‘budi is my name, desa means village.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial: 10 events not to miss
Ian Spula, The Spaces, October 1, 2015

Over the next three months, architects and artists will be at play in Chicago. The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial — North America’s largest survey of international architecture — is a platform for spatial experiments, mirroring the architectural innovation for which the city is known. This is where the skyscraper got its start, after all. The Biennial will ask what innovations will come next and what will they look like.

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First Look>Inside The Chicago Architecture Biennial
Matt Shaw, The Architect’s Newspaper, October 1, 2015

AN got a firsthand look at some of the projects inside the Chicago Cultural Center, many of which are juxtaposed across media, scale, and intellectual territory. For example, simple wood models from South African studio Noero Architects’ 180 Square Meters sat quietly next to a wild set of renderings by François Roche that showed digital narratives of buildings as characters in their surroundings.

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New Talent: RAAAF
A.J.P. Artemel, Metropolis, October 1, 2015

The Dutch architects combine design and philosophy in works that highlight urgent social and cultural issues.  Nominated by Aaron Betsky The modern landscape is littered with abandoned fields and buildings, landfills, and trash heaps, as well as stagnant, inefficient, and soul-killing offices, schools, and shopping centers. Much of what humans build and shape is then left fallow, empty, and ruined.

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CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL AIMS TO BUILD A VAST GLOBAL AUDIENCE FOR THE CITY
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times, September 30, 2015

Architecture is about far more than any single building, no matter how beautiful, functional or innovative that structure might be. It is about history. And landscape. And urban planning. It is about power and prestige. And ordinary forms of shelter. It is about changes in technology. It is about the use of space, both interior and exterior. It is about the impact of a man-made environment on the physical and emotional well-being of those who inhabit it, and leave their mark on it.

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Biennale di Architettura di Chicago. Parla Joseph Grima
Valentina Silvestrini, Arttibune, September 30, 2015

Avrà il suo cuore al Chicago Cultural Center, ma troverà ampia diffusione anche in altre location della principale città dell’Illinois: è la Biennale di Architettura di Chicago, evento senza precedenti nella storia del Nord America, al via il 3 ottobre. Direttori artistici della prima edizione sono Sarah Herda, dal 2006 alla guida della Graham Foundation, e Joseph Grima, architetto, curatore, editor-in-chief di Domus dal 2011 al 2013.

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Windy Biennial | East Coast architects discuss the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Matt Shaw, The Architect's Newspaper, September 21, 2015

Starting October 1, over 100 architects and artists from more than 30 countries will convene in the Windy City for what can only be described as an architectural extravaganza. The Chicago Architecture Biennial is titled “The State of the Art of Architecture,” and its co-artistic directors Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima have assembled a roster of international and local talent to spark a dialogue about the context of Chicago as a stage for the contemporary global discourse.

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Banking on the South Side | Theaster Gates revives a Stony Island Bank as an arts hub just in time for the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial.
Chris Bentley, The Architect's Newspaper, September 18, 2015

A long-vacant monument on the South Side of Chicago may soon be the pride of the neighborhood once again. A quintessential community bank for nearly half a century, the Stony Island Trust & Savings Bank hasn’t cashed any checks since the early 1980s. But beginning this month, the Classical Revival-style building will boast a different type of wealth: Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates and his nonprofit Rebuild Foundation have transformed the bank into a hub for arts on the South Side.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial Releases Full List of Public Programs and Events
Chris Bentley, The Architect's Newspaper, September 18, 2015

Get out your calendars. As The Chicago Architecture Biennial draws near to its October 3 debut, the festival’s organizers have released a list of events and public programs that should help fill out your social schedule into December. You can peruse the whole list of events on the biennial’s website.

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Inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces 2015 Participants
Karissa Rosenfield, Arch Daily, August 14, 2015

A 60-strong list of international studios has named the official participants of the first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial – the “largest international survey of contemporary architecture in North America.

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Announcing the BP Prize Winner of the Lakefront Kiosk Competition: “Chicago Horizon” by Ultramoderne
August 5, 2015

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced today that Ultramoderne, a collaboration between architects Yasmin Vobis and Aaron Forrest and structural engineer Brett Schneider, won the BP Prize in the Lakefront Kiosk Competition.

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Even More
Jason Farago, May 28, 2015

In the summer of 1922, the Chicago Tribune held a competition for architects worldwide to design its new headquarters on Michigan Avenue–“a thoroughfare,” in the paper’s own estimation, “that soon will be the most impressive street in the western world.

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Creative Control
Dave Kim, Surface Magazine, May 1, 2015

If Joseph Grima could have his way, he would forego declaring a nationality. The 38-year old architect, curator, and writer hold British citizenship, but he was born in France, has a Maltese grandfather, and spent most of his life in Italy.

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Why Chicago’s Biennial Will Change the Way You Look at Buildings
Nikki Ekstein, Travel + Leisure, April 27, 2015

It’s not just for architecture buffs. The Windy City is widely considered the birthplace of the modern skyscraper, so perhaps it’s no surprise that Chicago will soon welcome the country’s first-ever architecture biennial—and also the biggest architecture show ever put on in North America. With an advisory committee that includes industry giants like Frank Gehry and Jeanne Gang, the show kicks off on Oct. 3 and lasts three months.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial Reveals List of 60+ Participating Studios
Caroline Massie, Architect Magazine, April 14, 2015

Today, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the roster of more than 60 participating firms and artists in the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will run from Oct. 3, 2015, to Jan. 3, 2016. The participants were chosen by Biennial co-artistic directors Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda, who were backed by an advisory council that includes David Adjaye, Hon.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces Inaugural Lineup
Janelle Zara, Architectural Record, April 14, 2015

The Chicago Architecture Biennial, to take place October 3 through January 1, today unveiled the programming for its inaugural edition, to be the first of its kind in North America.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Lineup Looks Stellar
Patrick Sisson, Curbed, April 14, 2015

Underneath the sparkling Tiffany Dome of the Chicago Cultural Center this morning, organizers for the Chicago Architecture Biennial announced the initial participants for the inaugural gathering, set to begin October 3.

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List of Architects for Chicago Biennial Begins to Take Shape
Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune, April 14, 2015

Emphasizing fresh faces and ideas instead of star architects and their familiar styles, organizers of the fledgling Chicago Architecture Biennial on Tuesday announced their first list of participating architects and artists as well as a $1 million gift from Racine, Wis.-based SC Johnson.

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Designer of the Moment: Sarah Herda
F. Philip Barash, Newcity Design, March 23, 2015

Sarah Herda set out to become an architect. That she didn’t turns out for the best: a series of high-profile gigs, culminating with the Graham Foundation, have marked Herda’s march toward the intellectual center of design. When the first architecture biennial in North America launches in October, Herda will have finally arrived at her destination. Dead architects you’d invite to a dinner party. Go.

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Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago – Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima
Newcity, F. Philip Barash, Brenda Bergen, Nick Cecchi, Isa Giallorenzo, Troy Pieper, Krisann Rehbein, Brook Rosini, Jessica Sattell, Michael Workman and Alanna Zaritz, March 23, 2015

We have long been suspicious of anything that bills itself as world-class on the theory that if you have to say it, you ain’t got it. And maybe that’s why we have great hopes for the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, whose co-creative directors Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima are much too astute to deploy boosterish slogans. Taken together, Herda’s and Grima’s credentials read like the resume of a design ubermench.

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Why the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s Kiosks Will Be CHI-IL As Heck
Matt Shaw, Architizer, March 18, 2015

With its local scene gaining momentum, the Chicago Architecture Biennial is threatening to steal some of the Venice Biennale’s thunder. (Please don’t give me concrete shoes!) One of the most exciting things in Chicago — and part of what is fueling the momentum of the Biennial — is the schools there. They have a complex history, as the skyscraper was born in Chicago, and Mies and Tigerman famously had a productive back-and-forth for many years at IIT and UIC respectively.

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Lakefront Competition
Carlotta Marelli, January 13, 2015

The Chicago Architecture Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition is a featured component of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, a key part of Mayor Emanuel’s continuing efforts to promote architecture as one of Chicago’s thriving cultural sectors and to create new cultural experiences in the city’s neighborhoods and parks.

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Disegno’s 2015 Preview
Anya Lawrence, Disegno.Daily, January 2, 2015

Remaining in the USA, although skipping ahead to October, the first edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial is an event worth watching. The biennial is themed around “The State of the Art of Architecture”, a title that perhaps suggests something of the same introspection that marked Rem Koolhaas’s Fundamentals exhibition for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennial.

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Tigerman’s take on the first Chicago Architecture Biennial
F. Philip Barash, New City Design, November 14, 2014

“The Chicago Architecture Biennial recently announced a theme for its inaugural year. The theme, “The State of the Art of Architecture,” pays homage to a landmark 1977 conference organized by architect Stanley Tigerman at the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

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The First Chicago Architecture Biennial to Assess the State of the Art of Building
Zachary Edelson, Metropolis, November 13, 2014

More than 120 years ago, Chicago’s World Columbia Exhibition made Beaux-Art the gold standard of American architecture. The 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, newly titled “The State of the Art of Architecture,” will walk a more delicate balance—taking stock of today’s architecture while simultaneously challenging the public’s vision for its future. The city of Chicago itself will play a central role in the exhibition.

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What the Chicago Architecture Biennial Will Look Like
Jason Foumberg, Chicago Magazine, November 13, 2014

Last month, the Department of Cultural Affairs announced that Chicago would host an inaugural exhibition of cutting-edge architecture in October 2015. Dubbed The Chicago Architecture Biennial, the event is the first of its kind in North America in the manner of the Venice Architecture Biennale.

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Architectural Epicenter: 6 Reasons Chicago Is So Hot Right Now
Matt Shaw, Architizer, November 13, 2014

Chicago’s modernist architectural history is especially rich because the city burned in 1871, leaving the downtown tabula rasa just as modernity took hold. And the Chicago School’s experiments in structural steel and large swaths of glass produced the skyscraper as we know it today. During the heyday after the fire, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Burnham and Root made the major American contributions to early modernism, and Mies joined the party in 1937.

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“The State of the Art of Architecture” Will Feature Photo Series by Iwan Baan
Rory Stott, Arch Daily, November 10, 2014

The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial now has an official name, with co-directors Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda announcing “The State of the Art of Architecture” as the biennial’s theme last week. Taking its name from a 1977 conference organized in Chicago by Stanley Tigerman, which focused on the state of architecture in the US, next year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial will aim to expand that conversation into the “international and intergenerational” arena.

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Chicago Architecture Biennial Announces 2015 Name, First Commission
Sara Johnson, Architect Magazine, November 7, 2014

The first-ever Chicago Architecture Biennial now has a name: “The State of the Art of Architecture.” The exhibition, announced in June and scheduled to open in October 2015, is being billed as the largest of its kind in North America. The title of the exhibition comes from a 1977 conference of the same name that was orchestrated by Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman, FAIA, with the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts (one of the Biennial’s presenting partners).

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A realm of architectural possibility, past and future: photographer Iwan Baan examines Chicago
October 24, 2014

The Chicago Architecture Biennial’s first commission for The State Of The Art of Architecture is a photo essay on Chicago by world-renowned photographer Iwan Baan. Over the past decade, Baan has transformed the practice of architecture photography, challenging the long-standing habit of magazines and architects themselves of representing architecture in a staged condition, devoid of its inhabitants.

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Crain’s announces appointment of Ty Tabing as Executive Director of Chicago Architecture Biennial
Shia Kapos, Crain's, October 23, 2014

“Ty Tabing, the former executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance, has returned to Chicago to run the Chicago Architecture Biennial, an international architecture exhibition. For the past two years, the man credited with creating Looptopia and other cultural projects has been running Singapore River One, a public-private partnership to promote business and activities along the river.

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An Interview with Sarah Herda and Joseph Grima
Joshua Michael Demaree, The Seen, September 8, 2014

“Currently in the planning stages, the CAB is promising to be innovative in approach and design, and a critical step in Chicago’s reclamation as an arts & culture powerhouse both domestically and internationally.

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An Architectural Biennial For A South Side Girl
Laura Washington, Chicago Sun-Times, August 15, 2014

In my day, there were no architectural biennials. “Going to Grandmother’s” loomed large in my childhood. Visiting her gorgeous apartment building at 4304 S. Forestville, in Bronzeville. Playing in the flowering courtyard, swinging on the huge iron gate garnished with elaborate, overlapping geometric circles and Celtic crosses. I called them “curlicues.” Up to the apartment, little fingers tip-toeing across the carved ebony fireplace.

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Design biennial promises to bring world of ideas to Chicago
Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune, July 20, 2014

“The torrent of architectural news in the last few weeks — the Lucas Museum, Wrigley Field signs, plans for a new skyscraper — has obscured what may turn out to be the biggest story of all: Chicago’s push to host an architecture biennial next year.

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Chicago Announces Architecture Biennial
Noam Dvir, Art in America, June 25, 2014

“Architecture is an incredible asset for Chicago, but it’s also an underutilized asset,” Herda toldA.i.A. in a phone interview. “Chicago is the most important city for architecture in the country and it’s astonishing that such an event hasn’t taken place yet in North America. It seems like a great opportunity and an important time to convene the world.

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