When SOPHY® Hyde Park opened in 2018, it welcomed residents and visitors alike as a 98-room, boutique destination that quietly invited the exploration of music, literature, science, and art across its richly appointed interior spaces. Both muse and respectful ode as a song that continues to be written, SOPHY Hyde Park celebrates and embraces the creativity, the innovation, the inspiration,…
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Embry
Housing is about home and belonging. It is about shelter and expression and generational legacy, and as the interest in human-scaled, community-oriented, and pedestrian-friendly multi-family housing development continues, the residential unit as the home is taking on new meaning in the market. Though it poses its own set of challenges, multi-family housing offers an equally unique set of opportunities in…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Richly textured
When Mary Tolan, founder and managing partner of Chicago Pacific Founders of Chicago, Illinois, looked to expand the firm’s existing square footage at their headquarters along Michigan Avenue, the investment leader tapped the creative expertise of long-time design partner Yvette Cusack of BJC Designs LLC to bring the dynamic, full floor workplace to life. Located at 980 North Michigan Avenue,…
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In celebration
Lauren Svenstrup, founding principal of Studio Sven in Chicago, Illinois, is self-admittedly not a “yes person” when it comes to her clientele and her passion for design. Instead, it is about finding that rich, creative balance in a pursuit of curiosity over conformity, dedicated to a process of discovery, of exploration, and of the powerful potential of why. Her work,…
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More than architecture
For Jennifer Park, AIA, NCARB, founding principal of ParkFowler Plus in Chicago, Illinois, architecture is as much an abstract exploration of the philosophies and theories that have shaped its long history, as it is a practical delivery in which iteration, collaboration, and inclusive practices can inform the built landscape for the future. To Park, design is a way of thinking…
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Raquel Guzman Geara, AIA
Associate Architect, Interior Architect SmithGroup | Chicago, Illinois The pursuit of happiness has become a familiar phrase for many. Yet, its philosophical roots took hold long before it became embedded into documents and local vernacular. For Raquel Guzman Geara, AIA, that pursuit in terms of architecture can help facilitate and enhance the human experience. When rooted in key principles…
