American Architecture Prize Firm of the Year Award Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects Art Institute of Chicago, 2012 Company Background Founded by Jeanne Gang in 1997, Studio Gang is an architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago and New York. We work as a collective of architects, designers, and thinkers, using design as a medium to connect people with each other, their communities, and the environment. We collaborate closely with our clients, expert consultants, and specialists from a wide range of fields to design and realize innovative projects at multiple scales: architecture, urbanism, interiors, and exhibitions. A sustainability ethos is central to our practice, coupled with a methodology defined by research and experimentation. We are currently designing major projects throughout the Americas and Europe, including high-rise towers in Toronto and Amsterdam; a new addition to the American Museum of Natural History in New York; the new United States Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil; the expansion and renovation of the Arkansas Arts Center; a unified campus for the California College of the Arts in San Francisco; and an interactive installation for the National Building Museum’s 2017 Summer Block Party, among many others. Projects currently under construction include the residential high-rises Vista Tower and Solstice on the Park in Chicago; 40 Tenth Avenue, an office high-rise near New York’s High Line park; the mixed-use Folsom Bay Tower in San Francisco; and a new training facility for the New York City Fire Department’s Rescue Company 2. Our recently completed work includes a new office space for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York; Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois; and, in Chicago, the Eleanor Boathouse at Park 571, the University of Chicago Campus North Residential Commons, and the mixed-use high-rise City Hyde Park. Other award-winning projects include the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College in Michigan and Chicago’s Aqua Tower, Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, WMS Boathouse at Clark Park, and the 91-acre public park Northerly Island. Intertwined with our built work, we also develop research proposals, exhibitions, publications, and programming that push design’s ability to create public awareness and lead to change—a practice we call “actionable idealism.” This work includes Reverse Effect, an advocacy publication produced to spark a greener future for the Chicago River; Polis Station, an ongoing project exploring how American police stations can be reimagined through an inclusive design process to better serve their communities; Working in America, an exhibition that takes an intimate look at what working means today for everyday Americans; and Civic Commons, a set of design strategies and techniques that any community can use toward reimagining civic assets such as libraries, parks, recreation centers, police stations, schools, streets, and transit. Our firm-wide awards for design excellence include the 2013 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture and the 2016 Architizer A+ Firm of the Year Award. Additionally, Jeanne Gang has been recognized with a 2011 MacArthur Fellowship and the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur and was named Architectural Review’s 2016 Architect of the Year as part of the Women in Architecture Awards. Most recently, Jeanne was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Louis I. Kahn Memorial Award. Our work has also been honored widely, including 2017 and 2015 Institute Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects, and has been shown in prestigious exhibitions and venues including the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Work Highlights / Significant Projects Writers Theatre Glencoe, IL, 2016 Theater’s ability to bring together people across boundaries has made it an Studio Gang’s Role important force in urban life since ancient times. The design for the new home Architect of Record of Glencoe’s Writers Theatre is intended to maximize this potential for a 21st- Client century theater company, creating an architecture that energizes the daily life of Writers Theatre its community and becomes an exciting, region-wide cultural destination. Size 36,000 sf Organized as a village-like cluster of distinct volumes that surround a central hub, the building’s form resonates with the character of Glencoe’s downtown. The Sustainability theater’s two performance spaces—a main stage and a smaller black box venue— LEED Gold Certified employ innovative staging and seating configurations to maximize the sense of Awards intimacy between actors and audience and to enhance the immersive experience of Architizer A+ Awards, Jury and Writers’ productions. Both of these performances venues, in addition to rehearsal Popular Choice Winner, 2017 space and public zones, open onto the central gathering space of the lobby. Structured by great timber Vierendeel trusses with a lighter wood lattice supporting WoodWorks Wood Design Awards, 2017 its second-floor canopy walk, the lobby is designed to accommodate multiple uses including informal performances and community events. Institute Honor Award, Interior Architecture, American Institute The building engages its context through transparent visual connections and ivy- of Architects, 2016 covered backdrops to the surrounding parks. In fair weather the lobby can open to the Honor Award, Divine Detail, adjacent Women’s Library Club Park, allowing the energy and interaction generated Design Excellence Awards, AIA inside the theater to extend outward into the community beyond. At night, the Chicago, 2016 theater glows from within, drawing interest and activity to this important civic and Honor Award, Interior cultural anchor. Architecture, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 Citation of Merit, Distinguished Building, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 “Writers Theatre ... is the finest piece of theatrical construction to be built in this country in the past decade.” —Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal University of Chicago Campus North Residential Commons Chicago, IL, 2016 Featuring a mix of student residences, dining options, amenities, retail, and Studio Gang’s Role outdoor green spaces, the Campus North Residential Commons offers the kinds Architect of Record of social spaces and experiences that enhance campus and academic life for Client today’s undergraduates. The full-block site is designed as a new, welcoming portal University of Chicago to the University, encouraging interactions and exchange among students while also strengthening connections between students and the surrounding community. Size 400,000 sf The design situates three slender bar buildings in an urban fabric of plazas, Sustainability gardens, walkways, and courtyards that together form inviting public and semi- Targeting LEED Gold private outdoor spaces for students and neighbors. The buildings are scaled to their context, with the tallest structure completing the urban edge of busy 55th Street, while the lower structures are more attuned to the residential neighborhood along University Avenue. Pre-cast concrete panels are used to clad the building, a contemporary facade informed by the University’s neo-Gothic tradition. Enhancing the University’s House system, which encourages interaction and collaboration between students of different years to support social and academic success, the buildings are organized around House hubs, three-story communal spaces that are designed to feel comfortable and homey. First- and second-year students live closest to the hubs in single and double rooms, while third- and fourth-year students enjoy more private, apartment-like spaces with kitchens and bathrooms. Each hub offers distinct spaces for studying, cooking, and relaxing in small groups or individually, while also enabling all House members to assemble together to discuss household chores and energy use and to plan group activities or study sessions. All eight Houses share communal spaces such as the top-floor Reading Room, music rehearsal rooms, outdoor courtyards, and spaces for studying and gathering, creating additional opportunities for relationship building among students. The buildings’ materials—including insulated pre-cast concrete panels, insulated metal panels, fritted glazing, and patterned grilles—are finely tuned at each exposure to precisely balance heat gain, heat loss, and daylight for every space. Students are able to individually control the conditioning of their rooms, and the House hubs as a whole are able to monitor their overall energy and resource use, promoting awareness of the spaces’ environmental impact. City Hyde Park Chicago, IL, 2016 City Hyde Park rethinks the urban apartment building, bringing new options Studio Gang’s Role for living, recreation, and leisure to its full-block site—formerly a strip mall Architect of Record and under-used parking lot. Located at a busy commercial intersection near Client Lake Michigan and adjacent to a commuter rail stop, it is designed as a Antheus Capital pedestrian-friendly hub that has a positive impact on the continued urban evolution of its neighborhood. Size 500,000 sf Featuring indoor and outdoor amenities, the residential tower rises from the Sustainability plinth, which supports an expansive green roof and is anchored by a grocery Targeting LEED Silver store—a new and necessary neighborhood amenity.