Founder, Owner, Principal KOO | Chicago, Illinois In architecture, as in literature, arts, and other social sciences, there is a wealth of traditions, movements, applications, and analyses—avant-garde, thought-provoking, and otherwise—that have shaped their respective fields throughout time and have challenged scholars and practitioners alike to consider the world and communication around them anew. For many, architecture is a form of communication, a language written through form, function, and material—and for the deconstructivist, the exploration of tension and potential contradiction. For Jackie Koo, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, NOMA, founder, owner, and principal of KOO in Chicago, Illinois, it was the combination of philosophy and the examination of architecture that first…
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The Georgian coastal
Built high into the white sand, wind-blown bluff on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, this coastal Neo-Georgian retreat is an inspired dialect of classic vernacular language often found in Georgian—and its American iterative, Colonial Revival—and Atlantic, Nantucket style. Defined by its proportion, symmetry, and restrained classical ornamentation, this residence reinterprets the traditional with East Coast inspired shingle siding, large spaces, generous windows, and layering of natural materials in understated elegance. While distinctive in its neighborhood, it is contextual in its siting and scale while embracing its lakefront environment through award-winning landscape and design of lush greens, textural plants, and a mixture of white and subtle hues in its foliage.…
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Inland Seas
Containing approximately 90 percent of the United States’ freshwater supply, and about 20 percent of the world’s freshwater supply, the Great Lakes—Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario—are a vital natural resource. Aside from providing many Americans and Canadians with clean drinking water, the Great Lakes also contribute to the region’s economy through the creation of jobs, goods, and services. Since its founding in 1989, Inland Seas Education Association, or ISEA, a nonprofit organization located in Suttons Bay, Michigan, has worked toward educating people of all ages on the importance of long-term preservation of the Great Lakes through hands-on experiential learning activities aboard a traditionally rigged, tall ship schooner. “The essence…
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Enriched space
Communities are defined by a set of unspoken social and cultural norms, strengthened by shared beliefs and often united by similar factors such as inclusion, safety, education, engagement, and sustainability. While each is unique, there is a common potential and ability for fostering healthy, supportive environments for the people who make up that community. In Toronto, Ontario, ZAS Architects + Interiors Inc. sought to realize an innovative campus set among a sprawling vertical neighborhood intended to provide a shared social and educational space, and ultimately meant to cultivate that greater sense of community. Combining forces to create a learning and community nexus within Toronto’s downtown space, two publicly funded school…
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Waterfront glassworks
“To me, architectural design is the culmination of so many things—art, sculpture, engineering, mechanics, ecology—and the concept of taking a client’s dream, turning that into lines on paper, and then transforming it into a massive piece of engineered art that someone lives inside of for years is extremely gratifying,” said Kevin Akey, owner of AZD Associates Architects Inc. in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. AZD Associates is an award-winning, full-service architecture and design firm delivering client-sensitive, forward-thinking projects in the residential, commercial, and remodel spaces. Established in 1990 by Akey and Frank Zychowski, owner and architect at AZD Associates Architects, the firm has since developed a portfolio of work across both architectural…
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The Future of Work
As one of North America’s most significant gatherings of commercial interior design experts, NeoCon has long driven conversations about healthy workspaces and their ideal ergonomic finish. As such, it is fitting that at the upcoming relaunch of the convention’s physical programming in October, conversations about the “future of work” will be central in discussions and events. Through its virtual programming and in-person events at theMART in Chicago, NeoCon is set to examine product and design solutions that contribute to the inclusive, efficient, and user-focused workplaces critical to the well-being of, and retention of, today’s workforce. “For more than 50 years, NeoCon has helped launch product solutions that meet, and even…
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Energy in scale
In the wake of uncertainty across social, economic, and environmental systems, and as many stand on the cusp of cautious optimism for the future, the idea of resiliency has emerged as a vital, multifaceted concept for individuals and industries. Resilience is about the capacity and tenacity of the human spirit and industrial endurance to not only survive, but thrive in the face of external forces and disruptive stressors. It is a concept and often comprehensive strategy with a diverse interpretation as it is applied to operations, communities, coastal environments, and the personal experience. When Ghafari Associates LLC, an architecture and planning firm headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, was tapped in late…
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X House
Perched on rock outcroppings along the shore of Lake Superior, a Marquette, Michigan residence is a display of harmonies between residential life and a profound natural topography of forest, lichenous bedrock, and freshwater horizon. The single-story home lays about the landscape in an X shape: an architectural strategy to minimize the home’s footprint, while preserving those stony landforms that inspired the homeowners and architectural team. The shape also embodies more conceptual contradictions, such as the interactions of short and long views across the lake and the robust, protective design of the home that is still bordered in glass and fit for the gentle rituals of everyday life. The choiceness of…
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The dune grass modern
Beyond the St. Joseph North Pier Inner and Outer Lights where the dune unfolds in a rare stretch of broad, flat sandy beach—in contrast to its frequent dramatic bluff-line—a series of vernacular volumes clad in soft weathering materials is nestled amid dune grass and lakeshore. Intimate and sheltered from the street, the cluster of interconnected gabled spaces is intentional in program, providing a number of private spaces throughout floorplan and courtyards before opening out toward dune habitat and freshwater theater in dynamic experience. There is an immediacy to the site, as view and open-lakeside perspective engage with the shoreline where westerly winds, playful waves, and coastal storms deliver a compelling…
