With the Chicago Architecture Biennial just three months away, the programming and activities of the inaugural event are quickly coming together. To coincide with the Biennial, the Chicago Architecture Foundation is sponsoring an open international ideas competition for a Center for Architecture, Design and Education. Open for registration today, the ChiDesign: Designing a Center for Architecture, Design and Education (CADE) ideas competition calls on architects to share their vision for an exciting new building typology that must accommodate the new headquarters, visitor center and exhibition spaces of the Chicago Architecture Foundation; a new headquarters for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH); a design and allied arts high school; and flexible learning spaces for out-of-school-time youth programs.
ChiDesign is both a celebration of the Biennial and an opportunity to envision the future of design education and programming in building form. “We’re exploring what a center about design, architecture, and design education might look like,” says Lynn Osmond, President and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, “which is the impetus for this ideas competition leading up to the Biennial.”
With the 50th anniversary of the nonprofit organization coming up next year, Osmond duly notes that this is “a point of inflection in our future — looking at the next opportunity for growth for the Chicago Architecture Foundation.” In the past 15 years, CAF has steadily expanded its offerings to include its popular, docent-led architecture tours of Chicago, and a myriad of youth programs, from LEGO® Build workshops to high-school architecture and design competitions. Today, CAF welcomes 600,000 visitors annually, 20% of whom are international tourists.
© Anne Evans
In 1992, CAF moved to its current headquarters in the historic Railway Exchange Building, where the Chicago Model is permanently installed and where it hosts year-round educational programming.
Thus, CADE is intended to be a new typology that combines gallery and event spaces, such as the Center for Architecture in New York and the National Building Museum, with dedicated education spaces like the Design School or the Baltimore School of Design. “I think what makes this unique is the big-picture thinking,” Osmond says. “We’re looking at the concept that out-of-school learning is as important as in-school learning now, and how you complement that with the resources of a cultural institution like CAF.”
Reed Kroloff, Competition Advisor and Senior Advisor for Programs and Industry Collaboration at CAF, has assembled an impressive jury — chaired by Stanley Tigerman, alongside David Adjaye, Billie Tsien, Monica Ponce de Leon, and Ned Cramer — who will select the shortlist of submissions to be featured in a major exhibition at CAF during the Biennial. Three top-prize winners will receive cash prizes and will be announced at a reception on October 8. Additionally, a committee of Chicago Public School high school students will select a Student Committee Prize from the shortlist.
“There are going to be hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago, there specifically for the Biennial,” says Kroloff. “For those who are partaking and participating, it has all of the hallmarks of being a very significant opportunity for review, for public engagement, and for widespread recognition.”
Registration for ChiDesign: Designing a Center for Architecture, Design and Education (CADE) opens July 9; questions are due on July 31 and will be answered by August 7; submissions are due on September 9. The exhibition of shortlisted entries will open on October 1, with the announcement of the three winners and honorable mentions (at the jury’s discretion) at a reception on October 8.
