Chicago: The Latest Architecture and News

Stanley Tigerman, an outspoken force on the Chicago architecture scene, was recently bestowed (much to his amazement) AIA Chicago's highest honour: the Lifetime Achievement Award. "I’ve done some damage to them and I’m aware of it. I’ve challenged them..." he explains to Meg Graham of Chicago Grid. "So that they then turn around in a way and turn the other cheek and give me this award does not go unnoticed by me. And I’m thrilled by it." You can find the full, wonderfully entertaining interview, in which he discusses the award, keeping up in a digital world, and getting older (without becoming "ridiculous"),here.

The Graham Foundation recently announced their upcoming exhibition, Environments and Counter Environments. “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape,” MoMA 1972, which opens to the public on September 18th with a short talk by curators Peter Lang, Luca Molinari, and Mark Wasiuta followed by a reception. This exhibition highlights the lasting significance of MoMA’s groundbreaking 1972 exhibition, Italy: The New Domestic Landscape. Presented for the first time in the United States outside of New York, the Graham Foundation's iteration of Environments and Counter Environments highlights both the dynamic context of radical Italian design and architecture in the 1970s, as well as the innovative exhibition that first presented this work in America. The exhibition will be on view until December 14th. More information provided by The Graham Foundation after the break.

Currently on display until August 22, AIA Chicago is honoring its Small Project Awards winners at 23 E. Madison in downtown Chicago as part of the Chicago Loop Alliance’s Pop-Up Art Loop initiative. Designed in collaboration with Chicago-based branding firm a5, the exhibit offers yet another opportunity for AIA Chicago and its Small Practitioners Group to showcase the smaller-scale innovations that architects work on in their day-to-day practice. The third annual Small Firm/Small Project Award program recognizes high quality work from small Chicago architectural firms and exceptional small local projects. More images information after the break.

Mies van der Rohe's last constructed skyscraper, the IBM building in Chicago, recently underwent a significant transformation: the modernist office building is now a 316-room luxury hotel. An interesting post on the ArchitectureChicago Plus blog weighs in on the building's history and ponders: will Mies' minimalist aesthetic be compromised by its new lavish furnishings? Read it all here.

Videos

We've talked at length about the future potential of 3D Printing for Architecture - from rapidly producing emergency shelters to putting structures on the moon - but The Chicago Architecture Foundation has already found a way to make 3D Printing practical for architects - today. Since 2009, the foundation has been using 3D Printing to make models of all the buildings of the city of Chicago (that's over 1,000 buildings in a 320 sq ft area). The idea is to let native Chicago-ans and tourists alike get a better sense of the city, seeing the city grid, the relationship of heights between the tall buildings, its patterns of development."

As a continuation to their in-depth review on the render, CLOG has selected 60 images from an international group of architects and design studios - including Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG, Mansilla+Tuñón Architects, and visualhouse - to serve as case studies in the exhibition New Views: The Rendered Image in Architecture. Now on view at the Art Institute of Chicago through January 5th, 2014, New Views will explore the diversity of rendering types being produced today and their effect on contemporary architecture. More information can be found here.