• Featured,  Print Edition,  Relish

    Detroit Ni Nyumbani

    For the 2024 Outstanding Restaurateur nominees, Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, Baobab Fare in Detroit, Michigan is more than just a restaurant. Founded by the husband-and-wife team, who are refugees from Burundi, East Africa, Baobab Fare is a celebration of vibrant flavors and simple ingredients, authentic dishes and rich culture, and a destination in which community, connection, and conversation intersect…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    Chicago Sukkah Design Festival returns for third annual exhibition

    The 2024 Chicago Sukkah Design Festival—this year’s AIA Chicago Honor Award recipient of the Robert Feldman Architecture for Social Justice Award—returns this Sunday, Oct. 6 to the James Stone Freedom Square in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood. For 20 days, the third annual festival will activate the public plaza with custom-built sukkahs, designed by five teams who reimagined the outdoor pavilion…

  • Featured,  Form

    AIA Chicago recognizes Linda Searl, FAIA, with Lifetime Achievement Award

    For nearly two decades, AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award has recognized architects who have left their mark in the Chicago architectural landscape. It is dedicated to those who have made enduring contributions to the built environment, the profession, and its community, both in the field and beyond it. And this year, AIA Chicago recognized Linda Searl, FAIA, founding principal of…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    The Parlour

    In Glen Ellyn, Illinois, located just off of Main Street along Pennsylvania Ave., The Parlour at Park & Oak invites patrons, travelers, and clients alike to step into its storied cocktail lounge and linger a while. Dedicated to the art and place of conversation, The Parlour—much like its namesake derived from the French word parler, meaning “to speak”—is a space…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    A Bar of Their Own

    Sports fans often recognize the powerful potential of a great moment. It is at times in a play, a strategy, or a gravity-defying move so memorable and so riveting that it is fixed in time as an iconic moment in athletics history. From the rush of adrenaline, and the recognition of resilience as a player or team weathers injuries and…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Rebecca Barry, AIA, NCARB

    Director of Architecture Ghafari Associates | Dearborn, Michigan   To Rebecca Barry, AIA, NCARB, Director of Architecture at Ghafari Associates headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, every built space has a story behind it. It is a story that can speak to the people, the culture, and the context around it, the mission and programmatic goals of an organization, and a celebration…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    Optima Verdana

    In 2023, Optima, Inc., a family-owned, vertically integrated and design-driven real estate development firm based in Glencoe, Illinois and Scottsdale, Arizona, realized a multi-family, 100-unit apartment building in downtown Wilmette, Illinois, delivering rental residences and an amenity-rich development to the North Shore market. For the privately-held firm, the residential and commercial project is more than its visual composition of glass…

  • Featured,  Print Edition

    Mike Shively, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP

    Founding Partner, Architect En Masse | Chicago, Illinois   To Mike Shively, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, whose mission in life is to make life better through architecture, design is a personal exploration. But it is less about putting his own stamp or personal architectural mark on the work he co-creates with his studio team and clients, and more about the…

  • Featured

    Todd Palmer, AIA, NCARB

    Senior Architect, Commercial Studio Leader AMDG Architects | Grand Rapids, Michigan   Todd Palmer, AIA, NCARB, Senior Architect and Commercial Studio Leader at AMDG Architects of Grand Rapids, Michigan, finds delight in working with clients in the earliest design phases and in the ability to carry their vision through completion. It is in the continuity of the process, the relationships…