Competition Seeks Help Designing Chicago’s BRT Stations
Cleveland’s BRT program has been hailed as a success.
As Chicago rolls out bus rapid transit routes, the benefits of BRT are often presented as a given. But the experiences of bus systems around the world prove design matters.
It might bode well for the burgeoning BRT movement in Chicago, then, that the Chicago Architecture Foundation and Chicago Architectural Club have launched a bus rapid transit station design competition. Dubbed “NEXT STOP,” the station design contest will be the subject of the 2013 Burnham Prize Competition.
Submit designs for three stations (downtown, near State and Madison; Bucktown-Logan Square at Western Avenue Blue Line ‘L’ Stop; Pilsen near 18th and Ashland) by noon May 13.
Chicago Architecture Foundation Honors Patrons of the Year
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. (Courtesy Steinkamp Photography)
The end of the year is nigh, and the season of awards and lists is at hand. In addition to the AIA Chicago awards to be presented tonight, the Chicago Architecture Foundation this week announced their Patron of the Year Awards.
“Good buildings only happen with good clients,” read a statement presented by Williams + Tsien at the ceremony. Great buildings, however, only happen when clients are “unreasonable” in their commitment to good design, the David & Reva Logan Center for the Arts architects said.
“Future Prentice” Proposals Imagine Reuse for Threatened Chicago Icon
The Buildings are sleeping, you should go and wake them up, she says. (Cyril Marsollier and Wallo Villacorta)
On the heels of a surprising, if tenuous, victory in court, preservationists gathered Thursday evening at the Chicago Architecture Foundation to celebrate the opening of Reconsidering an Icon: Creative Conversations About Prentice Women’s Hospital, an exhibition that showcases re-use proposals for Bertrand Goldberg’s threatened icon.
Some of the 71 ideas presented addressed Northwestern University’s stipulations for high-density wet-lab research space on the site, while some imagined other uses for the cloverleaf tower and its blocky podium.
Chicago Architecture Foundation Presents Bus Rapid Transit: Next Stop, Chicago
Courtesy Chicago Architecture Foundation
Bus Rapid Transit: Next Stop, Chicago
Chicago Architecture Foundation
224 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL
Through October 2012
While construction is set to begin on the Jeffrey Boulevard Corridor this summer, the plans for the rest of Chicago’s Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system are far from decided. The Chicago Architecture Foundation hopes to spur public interest and debate with its new exhibition Bus Rapid Transit: Next Stop, Chicago. Bus Rapid Transit emulates the qualities of a rail system while operating on mostly existing infrastructure. The system would bring dedicated bus lanes, traffic signal prioritization, pre-board payment, and arrival information displays to a few select routes connecting to Metra and CTA L stops in addition to other BRT lines.
Architecture Festivals Everywhere (Even Cincinnati!)
Chicago's Garfield Park Conservancy is one stop on Open House Chicago. (Damon Taylor / Flickr)
The craze for architecture festivals is not just consuming New York and Los Angeles, it’s also sweeping the Midwest! On October 15 and 16, the Chicago Architecture Foundation will present the inaugural year of Open House Chicago, with over 100 sites open to public access like the Garfield Park Conservancy, above.
But that’s not all! Cincinnati is getting into the action with a week long festival called, ArchiNATI, sponsored by the Young Architects and Interns Forum of AIA Cincinnati, running October 14 through the 21st. Events range from walking tours to a screening of design lover film of the year, I Am Love. Go see stuff!
Windy City Welcome Mats
Chicago is famously the city where cab drivers namedrop architects. This year there will be a new way for the general public to become even more well-versed in the city’s historic and contemporary architecture, openhousechicago. Modeled on successful programs in London, New York, and Toronto, openhousechicago will offer free access to more than 100 sites around the city, some of which are normally not open to the public, including the Center for Green Technology and the Burnham-designed Santa Fe Building. Organized by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, openhousechicago will run from October 14-16. Sites are still being nominated and volunteers are needed, so visit www.openhousechicago.org for more information or to get involved.
Mies, Ahoy!
(Courtesy Chicago Architecture Foundation)
The Chicago Architecture Foundation’s boat tours begin tomorrow, and they’ve added two evening “date night” cruises on Thursday and Friday evenings, beginning at 5:30. The hour and a half long tours highlights 53 architecturally significant sites. All Chicago Architecture Foundation cruises depart from the lower level and southeast corner of the Michigan Avenue Bridge at Wacker Drive. The 2010 Tour Schedule runs through November 21. Tickets are $32 and are available at www.architecture.org or
1-800-982-2787.
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