In Abundance: How We Fell Behind and How to Build a Better Future, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson claim the US is not suffering from a lack of resources or imagination but from a crisis of complexity. After decades of promoting solutions for housing, local food systems, and clean energy, we sense truth in their…

It’s been over a decade since I wrote about the construction trilemma, in which owners battle to optimize Scope, Quality, and Cost. With deadlines looming, most owners solve the puzzle by solely focusing on short-term considerations. But the year before we posted that blog entry, one of our clients—Noble Schools—opted to lay a foundation for…

On February 11, 2023, Iker Gil conducted an oral history interview with Dan Wheeler, the Founding Principal of WKA. During the interview, Dan shared insights into his upbringing, educational path, professional journey, significant projects, and his role as an educator at UIC. For the full story, visit: mascontext.com/dialogues/dialogues-dan-wheeler

When most people think of trauma, they conjure up images of emergency rooms, medivac heliports, and sterile clinical environments. But that sort of trauma is less prevalent than its invisible counterpart, psychological trauma. Almost half of our nation’s children have suffered its impact, and 60 percent of adults have experienced at least one traumatic event….

In a previous post, we introduced our proposal for Chicago’s West Side called AgriFlats, the final piece of a Food Innovation District aiming to revitalize neighborhoods by starting with “Why?” This post drills down on the details. Decarbonization Merely reducing our carbon emissions is insufficient to stifle global warming. We have to return vast amounts…

In 2019, we expanded a proposal drafted a year earlier to establish Chicago’s first Food District on the West Side, building on neighborhood assets like our Inspiration Kitchens project that won the 2013 Rudy Bruner Award Gold Medal. In the intervening years, projects like the Hatchery, a food business incubator, were built nearby in what…

Speaking to an educator audience in 1994, Dr. Russell Ackoff presented an aphorism equally timeless and relevant to designers. An ounce of information is worth a pound of data. An ounce of knowledge is worth a pound of information. An ounce of understanding is worth a pound of knowledge. An ounce of wisdom is worth…

In December 2020, the City’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate passed an ordinance to the full Chicago City Council legalizing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) for three years in five pilot areas comprising 22 percent of the City. Talk about dipping your toe into inclusionary zoning. But we’ll take it. Buoyed by ULI Chicago’s advocacy,…

Everyone is talking about resiliency. Since 2004, the number of people searching or writing about it has doubled. With the tumult of 2020, that’s not likely to abate anytime soon. Ironically, while most people will tell you that resilience is a good thing, it’s not widely supported by policies or practices. In the late 90s,…

To rejuvenate its neighborhoods, Chicago may want to consider importing an idea emerging from the hinterlands. The idea isn’t exotic. It’s downright retro. In America’s farmland, startup IndigoAg is promoting regenerative agriculture at scale to capture all the carbon emitted in the atmosphere in modern times. By merely increasing the carbon content of the average…

In The Culture Code, author Daniel Coyle identifies two categories of skills workers possess – Skills of Proficiency and Skills of Creativity. He describes how these two skill sets help people solve different types of problems for organizations. If you are like me, you freely shift between these skill sets during a typical workday. Yet…

After four decades of practice- and hopefully 40 to go- I am like others, a continually evolving architect searching for balance; optimistic of making things better, fearful of not doing so. The observations that follow have been formed through time, with gratitude to a large community of mentors, clients, colleagues, family, and daily encounters with…

If you’re planning a nice dinner, would you ever go to the grocery store, buy appetizer ingredients, prepare the appetizer, clean up the kitchen, and then repeat the same dedicated steps for the main course and then the dessert? Probably not, since that process would involve three separate “mobilizations” and take much longer. No one…

You know the scenario. A young child is more captivated by a discarded box than the gift once inside, thoughtfully purchased by a now disappointed adult. Oblivious to intent, the curious child sees more open-ended possibilities in the box.  Playing, at this age, is learning. As we understand more about how children learn, research suggests…

This past September, we participated in a multidisciplinary design sprint named Build Earth Live to plan a series of hyperloop stations for the United Arab Emirates. Drawing from our earlier work on the Hyperloop station typology, we collaborated with HyperPoland, one of the teams we met at SpaceX’s Hyperloop Design Weekend last year. Working with team…

We participated in SpaceX’s Hyperloop Design Weekend, held at Texas A&M University on January 29-30, 2016. As a selected finalist, we designed a prototype for a Hyperloop station. The ideas we presented during the weekend have appeared in podcasts and published in multiple articles. Our previous blog post described our underlying hypothesis that Hyperloop stations should…

We participated in SpaceX’s Hyperloop Design Weekend, which was held at Texas A&M University on January 29-30, 2016. As a selected finalist, we developed a prototype design for a Hyperloop station. We shared the design with over 180 teams who traveled from over 20 countries. Our hypothesis is that the ideal Hyperloop station should be…

Much of the average city’s infrastructure, including its transportation and information systems, is outdated, designed for “9–5” office workers or those in manufacturing and service industries. It is not suited to the needs of 21st-century higher education. College students’ schedules do not adhere to a typical workday. Students require breakout spaces and other gathering places…

We wrote here recently about “the construction trilemma,” which describes the three key variables of any construction project: quality, cost, and scope. You can’t touch one without impacting another. If the scope of a project increases—if the building grows in size, for instance—either the budget has to go up, or the quality has to go…

The best way to see a true cross-section of Chicago’s socio-economic structure is from the CTA Green Line, which bisects the city from its westernmost edge to its central core. Ride the train from Harlem/Lake to Ashland/63rd Street, and you’ll pass bungalows, townhouses, currency exchanges, active and abandoned industrial parks, landscape suppliers, doggy daycares, nightclubs,…

There are many ways architecture can adapt to its environment: automation systems learn an occupant’s habits, moveable walls turn office spaces into event venues, and shades and solar arrays move to track the sun. But adaptability isn’t always—or ever, really—about technology. It is primarily about improving the occupant’s experience and purpose, which, though we may…

While acknowledging the Construction Trilemma, which declares that you can only have your hand on two of three dials – Scope, Quality, and Cost – while making decisions, you can still find yourself puzzling over how to reconcile a project’s budget with its program.  When you get to this over-the-budget stalemate, what can you do? Most construction professionals will immediately…

The Metal Construction Association (MCA) recognized its 2014 Chairman’s Award recipients on Oct. 1, 2014 at METALCON Tradeshow and Conference in Denver, Colorado. Award recipients were determined based on overall appearance, significance of metal in the project, innovative use of metal, and the role of metal in achieving project objectives. View all award recipients here!

Situated 300 feet from the Blue Line train entrance and steps away from bus routes, 1611 West Division is dedicated to reducing traffic congestion and air pollution in its outreach to mass transit users, bicyclists and pedestrians. The evocative eleven-story apartment building made news this June by filling every unit soon after construction…