Chicago Architecture Biennial: Now Open

The first-even North American architecture Biennial is the brainchild of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who announced the three-month-long event in June 2014 and secured major funding from BP and SC Johnson so as to make the Biennial 100% privately backed. He hired Joseph Grima and Sarah Herda as artistic directors; both are former directors of the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City, and Herda currently heads the Graham Foundation in Chicago.

The theme is one they chose rather then developed, coming verbatim from a 1977 conference organized by Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman. They assembled a list of 120 architects, firms, artists, and designers from more than 30 countries, with the bulk of the projects on display in the Chicago Cultural Center, the first time it has been taken over by one exhibition.

World-Architects visited Chicago for a preview of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Over the next week or so we'll post some of our favorites exhibits from the Cultural Center, as well as from other sites around the city (those and previous posts can be found under the Chicago Architecture Biennial tag). 

The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial is free and runs from 3 October 2015 to 3 January 2016.