• Creative Endeavors,  Featured,  Print Edition

    The boardwalk connection

    “I look at design as a creation of how humans interpret the natural world. I think there is this connection between the natural world and the built environment, and it is up to us—those in the design field—to interpret what that is, and to create our own values on how we intersect the natural world and the built environment,” said…

  • Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    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…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Refractory

    For Refractory’s inaugural body of work and inception—forged at a moment of unprecedented change—its muse sings of a reverence for a frontier unbridled by time, when mountains were new, sandstone buttes clustered, continents drifted, and oceans receded. It speaks of mountain ranges, canyons, basins, and plateaus, shaped by deep-rooted geologic pressures and carved by powerful movements of rivers and wind.…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    Design Your World returns to Chicago

    In 2021, the International Interior Design Association launched an educational initiative in partnership with Chicago-based After School Matters to create early exposure and opportunities in interior design and architecture fields for a diverse group of high school students. The program, known as Design Your World, not only introduced students to the history and practice of commercial interior design, but also…

  • Featured,  Print Edition

    Humboldt GMT

    Designed for the everyday adventurer, the Humboldt GMT is the latest release in Oak & Oscar LLC’s line of Humboldt watches. Its slick design, highly adjustable bracelet, and advanced technology makes this watch a fit for multiple lifestyles and settings. An elevated take on the Humboldt 12-hour, this watch features a GMT complication and 24-hour bezel, allowing its user to…

  • Creative Endeavors,  Featured

    RNDD to host Pup Crawl & Cat Walk

    In partnership with PAWS Chicago, the River North Design District of Chicago, or RNDD, will host the River North Pup Crawl & Cat Walk on April 1, 2022. From 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. CT, an auction of pet items created by nine different designers will be on display throughout the nine showrooms participating in the walk. Guests of the event…

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    Great Lakes By Design: Ergonomics

    CONTENTS DESIGN CORNER 16 Pergola | the freestanding architectural workspace solution that also functions as an office space divider by Haworth Inc. 19 Prospect | the one-of-a-kind coffee table featuring the unique shapes and grain patterns of harvested Ash trees presented by Room & Board Inc.   DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 22 Elevated design | the innovative company leveraging its elevator interiors to create workspace design solutions for…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Form,  Print Edition

    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…

  • Design Spotlight,  Featured,  Print Edition

    Trina Sandschafer, AIA, LEED AP

    Vice President; Design Principal; Team Leader Corporate, Hospitality, Residential Kahler Slater Inc. | Chicago, Illinois   Scale, proportion, light: For Trina Sandschafer, AIA, LEED AP, vice president, design principal, and team leader of corporate, hospitality, and residential at Kahler Slater in Chicago, Illinois, they are often the defining elements of her architectural philosophy and client-based design approach. It is in…