Chicago: The Latest Architecture and News

Part of the CAC’s “What’s Next” series. Going beyond the typical lecture or panel, this workshop lays out clear-cut steps for preparing your office for a returning workforce under social distancing guidelines.

What simple, design-minded adaptations make for a healthier office? This program is geared to employers, building managers and others charged with reopening an office space. Get the tools to do so safely and confidently from Todd Heiser, Co-Managing Director of Gensler’s Chicago office, hosted by CAC President and CEO Lynn Osmond.

The office environment, collaborative by nature, presents distinct challenges in a world still recovering from a pandemic. Hear how architects, designers and their clients are exploring creative solutions.

To instill confidence and ensure public health, it will take imaginative redesign to reopen many workplaces under spatial distancing restrictions. Our expert panel moderated by Cheryl Durst, CEO of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), will share research and design prescriptions helping to quickly retrofit offices to welcome workers back safely.

Are we headed toward a “touchless” workplace? What familiar aspects of office life can we keep, and which ones may have to go?

Learn about Art Deco—the opulent architectural style from the 1920s and 1930s—with CAC docent Mike McMains on this live, 45-minute virtual tour in downtown Chicago on May 5 or 10.

It's the Roaring 20s, the economy is booming and everyone is celebrating! A style of architecture is needed to capture the moment: Art Deco. This 45-minute streaming tour describes the influences of the Art Deco style, defines its characteristics and profiles several wonderful buildings from the 1920s and 1930s and their amazing architects.

Join architect and urban planner Doug Farr as he introduces Carbon Free Chicago, a 30-year campaign to equitably decarbonize our region’s economy.

Farr will illustrate the strong parallels he sees between what is needed to restart the economy post-COVID and what we need to do to tackle our climate emergency. This talk also previews the CAC's upcoming exhibition, "ENERGY REVOLUTION: Creating Our Carbon-Free Future," made possible by exhibit sponsors ComEd and the Illinois Science Energy and Innovation Foundation, and developed by CAC staff in partnership with Farr Associates and Doug Farr.

Due to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Chicago’s public art legacy is younger than Boston’s or New York City’s. Its vast collection of public art, however, is star-studded, widely varied, endlessly interesting—and still growing. CAC docent Ed McDevitt leads this engaging introduction to some of Chicago’s greatest public art treasures.

How has the quest for Utopia shaped American cities? Join urban planner and professor Alex Krieger as he explores the dreams and ideals that have long influenced our urban settlements, as told in his new book, “City on a Hill.”

Alex Krieger is Professor of Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and principal at NBBJ, a global architecture and planning firm. He has directed downtown and urban waterfront plans in American and international cities, including the reconstruction of the Bund in Shanghai. He has chaired the Department of Urban Planning and Design on three occasions, served as Director

The annual Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's (CTBUH) Tall + Urban Innovation Conference explores and celebrates the very best in innovative tall buildings, urban spaces, building technologies, and construction practices from around the world. Incorporating what was previously known as the CTBUH Annual Awards event, this conference sees the owner/developers, design, and engineer teams for 50+ Awarded projects present in front of an international audience and live juries for winning distinctions across several award categories. Hot topics in the building industry will also be explored through presentations in project rooms.

The event brings to Chicago, the home of CTBUH,

Chicago presents itself as a broad-shouldered, cold-surfaced, and vascular city plopped in the heart of the American Midwest. All seemingly brought back into scale by its various public transportation and infrastructural systems. Within the confines of the crevasses of the bustling metropolis goes the unseen networks; whether they be physical, non-physical, or emotional habits that the new generation of live/workforce is tuned to.

Using the city of Chicago as a vehicle of architectural speculation and representative form, the city is recognized as a dense set of layers considering both the individuals and their physical-emotional makeup,

The National Historic Landmark Auditorium Theatre, which officially opened on December 9, 1889, has been a Chicago institution for 130 years. Celebrate this milestone anniversary, and explore Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler's masterpiece, at a FREE Open House! Take a historic theatre tour, pose for a picture at a photo booth with an Auditorium Theatre-themed backdrop; sketch and take photos of the theatre; bring the kids for free popcorn and coloring; grab a drink at the bar; and enter a raffle for a chance to win free tickets to a future Auditorium Theatre performance. Photographs, program books, and posters

The Chicagoland megaregion consists of interconnected cities, highways, and
municipalities, all of which grapple with challenges related to housing, water
quality, transportation, sustainability, and more. Legat Architects invites you to
consider how designers can address these issues.

Think Tank 2019: Megaregion is a day-long symposium and design exhibition that will unite architects, urbanists, public policy makers, and academics to examine Chicago’s future. This marks the first year the Think Tank is open to everyone: students, building owners, design professionals . . . anyone curious about what day-to-day life in the Chicago region will look like in the next 30 years.