On Saturday, October 3, the City of Chicago launches the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, titled “The State of the Art of Architecture.” Running through January 3, 2016, the multiplatform event is poised to be North America’s largest international survey of contemporary architecture.
The program is led by co-artistic directors Joseph Grima, an architect, writer, curator, and researcher based in Genoa, Italy, and Sarah Herda, director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. It will comprise exhibitions, full-scale installations, and programs of events that foster dialogue on the built environment today and its implications.
A series of Harvard Graduate School of Design faculty members and alumni plan to exhibit with their firms throughout the event, including:
– Frida Escobedo (MDes ’12), who has participated n the Venice Architecture Biennale and whose project La Tallera Siqueiros was nominated for the Design of the Year award at the Design Museum (London) in 2014;
– Conor O’Shea (MLA ’12/MDes ’14), who founded research and design firm Hinterlands Urbanism and Landscape in Chicago in 2014;
– Francisco Gonzalez-Pulido (MDes ’99), who leads international firm JAHN alongside Helmut Jahn;
– John Ronan (MArch ’91), whose firm John Ronan Architects has received two American Institute of Architects (AIA) Institute Honor Awards for projects in Chicago;
– Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (both MArch ’95), who are teaching a multi-year studio at the GSD and lead firm Johnston Marklee;
– Mason White (MArch ’01, and winner of the GSD’s 2008–2009 Wheelwright Prize), founding partner at Lateral Office;
– Luis Callejas, lecturer in architecture and landscape architecture and founder/director of LCLA Office;
– Margaret McCurry (LF ’87), a partner at Tigerman McCurry Architects and recipient of Honor Awards from AIA’s national and Chicago chapters
– Michael Meredith (MArch ’00), principal and cofounder of MOS Architects;
– Kersten Geers & David Van Severen, design critics in architecture and founding partners of OFFICE;
– Florian Idenburg, associate professor in practice of architecture and founding partner of SO – IL;
– Jeanne Gang (MArch ’93), founder of Studio Gang.
GSD alumni, professors, and friends will also be in town this weekend for Harvard Design: Chicago, which presents a series of events and conversations from Thursday, October 1 through Saturday, October 3.
Press and professional preview events for the Chicago Architecture Biennial run on Thursday, October 1 and Friday, October 2, with public programs beginning Saturday, October 3. To learn more, visit the program’s website.