Landscape, as a design practice and as a research field, is a rich and complex discipline with the powerful potential to influence the human experience and its relationship with the surrounding environment. It can serve as a catalyst, inspiring innovative strategies and solutions to address social, economic, environmental, and health issues, where landscapes—urban, rural, coastal, wooded, and agrarian—are brought to…
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En Masse
Set amid a row of iconic Greystone buildings along California Ave. in Chicago, Illinois, the grid-like façade of concrete and glass on the En Masse Architecture and Design Ltd. studio presents a bold juxtaposition with its environment at first glance. Its poured-in place, brise-soleil creates a patterned effect where vertical fins of concrete lend an added layer of complexity to…
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Eclectic flavor
In Downtown Detroit, a city known for its community of designers, industrialists, creatives, and culinary artists, this adaptive reuse of a 1940s-designed Art Deco Streamline Moderne building near Woodward Avenue along Parker’s Alley is a thoughtful curation of the old and the new. Realized by a collaborative design, build, and creative team led by the award-winning firm of McIntosh Poris…
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In conversation: Jason Keen
Visual Artist, Photographer Detroit, Michigan With an award-winning portfolio of work, Jason Keen is a Detroit, Michigan-based photographer who documents the built environment and has spent the last decade capturing the iconic design and architectural work of firms like Gensler, Stantec, Smithgroup, Olson Kundig, ROSSETTI, Mathison | Mathison, Moody Nolan, PLY+, Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects or LOHA, McIntosh Poris Associates, HOK,…
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The Michael Jordan level
Widely known for his gravity-defying leaps on the basketball court that earned the nickname “Air Jordan,” Michael Jordan is a businessman and former NBA player, with a basketball career and baseball days a legacy among sports fans—one that has extended into products and dining establishments celebrating Jordan’s accomplishments. The six-time NBA champion opened his first restaurant in 1993 through a…
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Jackie Koo, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP, NOMA
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…
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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…
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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…
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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 +…
