rowing up in Belvidere, A renowned Rotary Illinois, a city 70 miles alum affirms her northwest of , Jeanne Gang didn’t have commitment to to go far to glimpse her environmentally future. Her father, James, was a civil engineer and sustainable highway superintendent architecture in Boone County, and on Saturday mornings, the girl who would one day become a world-renowned architect would visit his of- fice and sit at the drafters’ drawing boards or clamber onto the heavy equipment used in road construction that sat idle in the county garage. On fam- ily vacations, James would pack his wife, Marjorie, and their four daughters into the Gfamily station wagon to drive around and look at bridges. “I really loved that,” re- calls Gang. “We traveled to almost all the states, and I developed a love for the great landscapes that we have in this country.” Gang’s education continued at the Uni- versity of Illinois, where she graduated with a degree in architecture in 1986. The recipient of a Rotary Ambassadorial Schol- arship, she traveled to Switzerland to study at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal University of Technical Studies). “I gained exposure to an international faculty and students that brought depth to my understanding of ur- ban design,” she says. “Being able to do that really expanded my horizons.” She went on THE CONVERSATION to earn her master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design — where she now serves as a Professor in Practice — and spent two years working with Dutch archi- tect . In 1995, Gang took a job in Chicago, a city with arguably the greatest collection of buildings in the United States — or at least, as Gang has asserted, the city with “the highest architecture IQ in the coun- try.” Two years later, she started her own firm there; known today as Studio Gang, it also has offices in New York, San Fran- cisco, and Paris. In 2010, Gang established herself as Chicago’s most prominent and creative architect with her 82-story Tower, a sensuously undulating building whose curved concrete overhangs evoke rippling water while also diffusing the Windy City winds. A structure both profoundly beau- tiful and eminently practical, Aqua earned

EANNE Gang a slew of accolades and awards: Emporis, a global building-data research company, anointed it the best new sky-

scraper of the year, and PETA chimed in Studio Gang of Truglia/courtesy Saverio GANG J

38 ROTARY SEPTEMBER 2020 JULY 2020 ROTARY MAGAZINE 39 with a Proggy Award for the building’s and cities, and we use different media to VISTA TOWER zoo College, there happens to be a tree bird-friendly design (also a characteristic express our ideas and the ideas of our cli- At 101 stories, type, white cedar, that is sustainably de- of other Gang works). The following year ents and collaborators: books, exhibitions, this three- ployed. We modernized an old technique she won a MacArthur Foundation “ge- and drawings and handmade models. tiered building is using the cedar as cordwood masonry, nius grant”; the foundation praised her Chicago’s third- which uses all parts of the tree. It actually

“unusual optical poetry ... and integrative tallest skyscraper; sequesters carbon. That went well with For an architect, what are the major to improve stability, approach to contemporary building.” elements of sustainability? its 83rd floor has the center’s personality and its site. It’s There was, for Gang, one galling as- At the most basic level, it’s about reducing been left vacant visible, exciting, and beautiful. pect to Aqua: It was often identified as carbon emissions. Buildings are responsi- and without the tallest building in the world designed ble for about 39 percent of all greenhouse windows so the How far have architects come in terms by a woman. (“It would be better to be gas emissions, so we have to work to make wind can blow through. of working toward sustainability? known as a great architect without the them less polluting in their construction When I was an undergraduate, a lot of my qualifier,” she says.) Aqua has since been and operation. But sustainability is also teachers were former hippies. They were eclipsed in height by another Chicago about social justice, equal rights, and re- into solar power, living off the grid, that skyscraper: Gang’s 101-story Vista Tower, ducing poverty. It’s about supporting na- kind of thing. When I started practic- which is expected to open this year. And ture and bringing it into the city so people ing, that conversation was almost non- in June, the publisher Phaidon released can appreciate the ecosystem services existent. By starting my own practice, I Studio Gang: Architecture, a lavishly illus- that nature provides. We installed a green was able to get back into that and adopt trated retrospective of the firm’s accom- roof at our own headquarters in Chicago new approaches to making green build- plishments over two decades. “The new — and not just any green roof. It has more ings. These days, many of our clients are book is about what ties all of our projects than 50 different plant species that sup- actually looking for these kinds of ideas together, the ideas that cohere across dif- port wildlife in the city: birds, insects, even and starting to ask for better-performing ferent categories,” Gang says. bats. It’s a big experiment, and every year buildings. We’re designing a new global In typical Gang fashion, the book also we measure the success or failure of it in a terminal at O’Hare airport in Chicago. looks toward the future. “How might “bio-blitz.” We try to bring these sensibili- The mayor wants to make it the world’s we leverage and expand on the creative, ties to all of our projects. greenest airport. That’s a big advance- collaborative nature of the profession ment from when I started the firm. ARCUS CENTER FOR to together shift societal values toward How do you incorporate the goals of SOCIAL JUSTICE a more balanced and thriving planet?” sustainability into projects? Does having local governments as LEADERSHIP Completed in 2014 Gang asks. “Our first 20 years of answers You look at what you have to work with clients add a degree of difficulty in at Kalamazoo are collected in this book.” and how you can shift available energy terms of resistance to innovation? College in Michigan, Recently, Paul Engleman, a frequent around to make the most use of it. You You can encounter resistance in the private the light-infused contributor to Rotary magazine, talked with look at what assets and needs the client sector too. A problem I’m concerned with structure employs Gang about a number of topics, including has, based on their location and climate. right now is the reuse of old heritage build- cordwood her commitment to sustainability, her of- Then you work with engineers to incorpo- ings. There seems to be a conflict between masonry made from sustainably fice’s green roof, and the civic and ecologi- rate those assets into the architecture. In historical preservation and making a build- deployed white cal ambitions of Studio Gang. Michigan, where we did the Arcus Center ing sustainable. There shouldn’t be. Those cedar that for Social Justice Leadership at Kalama- goals should go hand in hand. You shouldn’t sequesters carbon. How would you describe the work you do and your approach to it? The way I sum up the practice is that we’re like-minded professionals working col- laboratively and collectively on projects that connect people to each other and to “WE’RE WORKING their environment. In urban settings, that means bringing biodiverse nature back into cities so people can experience it. I’m passionate about the environment, and I COLLABORATIVELY AND want others to be too. Not everyone can get into the technical details of how we make our buildings greener. But they can get into COLLECTIVELY ON PROJECTS developing a stronger connection to their environment. If you can make a space so compelling that people go out of their way THAT CONNECT PEOPLE to be there, that’s a great way to start build- ing a good relationship between people and the environment, while also building stronger communities. We’re living in a TO EACH OTHER AND TO time that is so polarizing that we’re losing our connections to one another. At Studio Gang, we want to connect people to each THEIR ENVIRONMENT.” other. We design buildings, neighborhoods, Courtesy Studio Gang of Courtesy Studio Gang of BAAN IWAN

40 ROTARY SEPTEMBER 2020 JULY 2020 ROTARY MAGAZINE 41 CAREER have to install single-pane windows be- HIGHLIGHTS cause they existed in the original. That is literally what you’re asked to do to maintain 1997 “SUSTAINABILITY the historic preservation label. I think that’s Jeanne Gang a problem we have to address soon. I think opens her own reuse should be more aligned with efficien- architecture cy than with pure historical preservation. firm, known IS ALSO ABOUT today as Studio Gang. Is a net-zero carbon footprint a fea- sible goal in building construction? 2003 SOCIAL JUSTICE, Gang unveils It’s not a question of whether it’s feasible. We have to do it. It’s an urgent thing, but it’s her first public not easy to get there. We have two projects building, the renovated EQUAL RIGHTS, AND that are striving for that. At the California Starlight Theater College of the Arts, we’re using a microgrid in Rockford, as part of the solution. They have activi- Illinois. REDUCING POVERTY.” ties like glass blowing, which produces excess heat. So one could use that heat to 2010 create energy to produce hot water in the Emporis names residence halls. I like working at different Aqua, Gang’s 82-story Chicago scales and on different types of buildings high-rise, its best and not specializing. We can innovate a lot new skyscraper that way, because we find strategies that of the year.

work in one building type and can apply Studio Gang of Harris/courtesy Tom them in other building types. 2011 Gang wins a Tell me about Polis Station, Studio MacArthur Gang’s contribution to the Chicago Foundation the city will then hire architects to design Are energy-efficient innovations for “genius grant.” FDNY RESCUE Architecture Biennial in 2015. the projects. Doing a design study is a dif- COMPANY 2 buildings unaffordable luxuries for That was an attempt to present a concept ferent way of having an impact. Beneath its green some people? as an open-source idea for other people to 2012 roof, this fire-rescue That’s a difficult question, because there adopt. A lot of people are thinking about The Art Institute Is there a type of structure or project training facility in are so many different ways to do afford- of Chicago the problem between police and commu- that you haven’t done yet but would Brooklyn provides able housing. A lot of affordable hous- stages Building: the opportunity to nity members — the fear that police put ing already uses wood construction. Inside Studio really like to do? A prison? A bridge? stage emergency into members of the community that they Gang, the I definitely don’t want to do a prison. Bridg- situations in, on, Surely there is less of a carbon footprint should be trying to protect. We wanted firm’s first solo es are good metaphorically. We are doing and around the in a modest-size apartment built with to explore what public safety might look exhibition. a bridge — a pedestrian bridge — in Wis- building. wood than in a large, elaborate, high- like in these publicly owned buildings. We consin at the Beloit College Powerhouse, end home. When you look at carbon wanted to see if the design could start to 2017 which repurposes a former coal-burning footprint per household, it wouldn’t be positively impact those relationships. We Jeanne Gang power plant as a student union centered an equal calculation. Sometimes it’s re- recently completed a fire-rescue training is elected to on wellness and recreation. I’m really inter- quired that affordable housing be woven the American RICHARD GILDER facility in Brooklyn. It’s interesting that Academy of Arts ested in the hybridization of different types CENTER FOR SCIENCE, into a project. We are finishing up a high- everyone loves rescue workers and fire- and Sciences. of buildings. If you have a hotel that is also EDUCATION, AND rise in San Francisco, called Mira, that’s fighters, and that firehouses are often open a community center, something that hap- INNOVATION very high performing, and yet 40 percent buildings, completely different from police 2019 pens casually now could be much stronger. When completed of the homes there are being sold below in 2022, this stations. For the Polis Station exhibit, we An architectural There are a lot of interesting combina- market rate. 190,000-square- took policy guidelines that had been devel- team led tions that could happen. I want to bring foot addition oped by experts on ways to improve the re- by Studio different programs together into buildings. When Rotarians travel internation- to New York’s Gang wins an lationships between police and community At the American Museum of Natural His- American Museum ally, how should they think about international members and tried to think about how they tory in New York [where the Studio Gang- of Natural History architecture? competition to will add innovative could be expressed in a physical structure. design a new designed Richard Gilder Center for Sci- It’s good to see architecture in different spaces for exhibits global terminal ence, Education, and Innovation is slated places, because it’s always informed by

How does that align with the work at Chicago’s for a 2022 opening], they’re bringing to- and education the culture that’s there. Some interesting while improving O’Hare airport. you did with the Neighborhood Acti- gether their technical programs and the connections projects that are happening now involve vation Study in New York? arts — and different kinds of media are between buildings. designers thinking about mitigating natu- We were hired by the Mayor’s Office of 2020 being adopted in the arts. It’s exciting for us ral disaster. Rotarians could think about Criminal Justice to do an urban design Chicago’s Vista as designers. We’re mixing classroom and how design could improve places that they study aimed at creating safe spaces in two Tower and the exhibit spaces, and we’re thinking of it as travel to. There’s a flow of people on the neighborhoods. It’s about improving rela- publication of an institution that has a strong educational move because of natural disasters or wars. tionships on a community scale, but not Studio Gang: focus at all levels, from kids to teachers to I think there’s probably a good project in Architecture cap necessarily by way of a building. We were the firm’s first PhD students. It’s a research institution thinking about how to accommodate peo-

defining what the projects could be, and Courtesy Studio Gang MIR and of 20-plus years. that’s also focused on education for visitors. ple who are displaced. ■

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