Studio
Designing Transformative Architecture
Profile
Founded by Jeanne Gang, FAIA, in 1997, Studio Gang is an international practice whose work confronts pressing contemporary issues. Conceived as a collective of architects, designers, and thinkers, the studio acts as a lab for testing ideas on varying scales: from cities to environments to material properties. The firm’s transformative and innovative architecture is exemplified by such recent projects as the Aqua Tower (the 2009 Emporis Skyscraper of the Year), Columbia College Chicago’s Media Production Center (a cutting-edge film production and teaching facility), and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo (an educational pavilion and landscape that is quickly becoming a new Chicago landmark).
The work of Studio Gang has received national and international recognition and has been published and exhibited widely, most notably at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the National Building Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Reveal, Jeanne Gang’s first volume on the firm’s work and working process, was released from Princeton Architectural Press in 2011. The firm’s solo exhibition, Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, set record attendance during its run at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 2012–February 2013.
Process
Studio Gang begins every project with a research-based discovery process. This unique method recognizes the direct relationship between deep understanding and creativity. It also fosters clients’ active participation in our design process, making choices as the project develops.
Our practice is grounded in the belief that this thoughtful and collaborative approach is necessary for all projects, especially those whose impact and complexity is considerable. Rather than waiting until a project’s design is developed to conduct in-depth planning research, Studio Gang obtains this critical knowledge early on: at the beginning of a project’s concept design phase.
By understanding clients’ project goals and strategizing methods to achieve them from the very beginning, the project’s budget and timeline are preserved and respected, and a more compelling building design is conceived to serve as the basis from which the final project grows.
Embedded in our way of working is the search to reduce a project’s energy and material footprint while simultaneously seeking out the exciting synergies made possible by sustainable design. Everyone at Studio Gang offers deep knowledge of green solutions: all team members aim to become LEED Accredited Professionals within one year of joining the firm, and several of our projects are targeting a LEED Platinum rating.
Awards
Professional & Civic
National Design Award, Architecture Design, The Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2013
American Architecture Award, Chicago Athenaeum, 2011 / Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo
Third Place Finalist, Kaohsiung Maritime Culture & Pop Music Center International Competition, 2011
International Highrise Award Finalist, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, 2010 / Aqua Tower
Innovative Wood Design Award, 2010 / Lincoln Park Zoo South Pond Pavilion
Best Large Structure, Structural Engineers Association of Illinois, 2010 / Aqua Tower
Second Prize, Taipei Pop Music Center International Competition, 2010 / Oculus
Skyscraper of the Year Award, Emporis, 2009 / Aqua Tower
Most Compassionate Architectural Firm, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 2009
American Architecture Award, Chicago Athenaeum, 2008 / Aqua Tower
Shortlist Candidate, World Architecture Festival, 2008 / SOS International Children’s Village
Merit Award Winner, Chicago Building Congress, 2008 / SOS Community Center
Best New Institutional Building, Friends of Downtown, 2005 / Chinese American Service League
Neighborhood Development Award, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, 2005 / Chinese American Service League
International Venice Biennale Exhibitor, 2004 / “Transcending Type”: Baseball in the City
Best Overall Design Award, Metal Architecture & Metal Construction Association, 2004 / Starlight Theatre
Grand Prize, International Prism Stone in Architecture Award, Marble Institute of America, 2004 / Marble Curtain
Design Award of Honor, Society of American Registered Architects, 2004 / Starlight Theatre
Best of Institutional, Midwest Construction Magazine, 2004 / Chinese American Service League
Gold Medal Award & Presidential Award, Association of Licensed Architects, 2003 / Starlight Theatre
AIA
Distinguished Building Honor Award, AIA Chicago, 2011 / Nature Boardwalk, Education Pavilion and South Pond Transformation at Lincoln Park Zoo
Distinguished Building Honor Award, AIA Chicago, 2010 / Aqua Tower
Distinguished Building Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2010 / Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center
Mies Van der Rohe Award, AIA Illinois, 2009 / SOS International Children’s Village
Divine Detail Special Recognition Award, AIA Chicago, 2009 / Brick Weave House
Distinguished Building Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2009 / Brick Weave House
Distinguished Building Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2008 / SOS International Children’s Village
Divine Detail Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2008 / SOS International Children’s Village
Interior Architecture Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2008 / Workspace 1212
Unbuilt Honor Award, AIA Chicago, 2008 / Zhong Bang Village
Unbuilt Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2008 / Architecture for Humanity Biloxi Pinecone House
Emerging Visions Award, AIA Chicago, 2006
Distinguished Building Honor Award, AIA Illinois, 2004 / Starlight Theatre
Distinguished Building Citation of Merit Award, AIA Illinois, 2004 / Chinese American Service League
Distinguished Building Citation of Merit Award, AIA Chicago, 2004 / Chinese American Service League
Special Recognition, AIA Illinois, 2004 / Marble Curtain
150 Great Places in Illinois, AIA Illinois, 2004 / Starlight Theatre
Emerging Visions Award, AIA Chicago, 2000
Testimonials
“For all its visual power, Aqua is mostly free of conceit. In an age in which so much architectural form—even, sometimes, the best architectural form—has no real rationale beyond the fact that it is what the architect felt like doing, there is something admirable about the tower’s lack of arbitrariness. It reclaims the notion that thrilling and beautiful form can still emerge out of the realm of the practical.”
—Critic Paul Goldberger on Aqua Tower in The New Yorker, February 1, 2010
“Jeanne Gang represents the continuation of Chicago’s modernist tradition of structural rationalism. She does this in a way that is at once deeply personal, socially progressive and incomparably innovative.”
—Architect Richard Meier in his jury comments for Jeanne Gang’s Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
“Gang has given the school far more than it asked for, at a much higher quality (with a LEED Gold rating), with more serious thinking about how form can accommodate programming, and for less money than it would cost to produce a greatly inferior building, than almost any other architect I can imagine.”
—Critic Stephen Zacks on the Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center in Blueprint, June 2010
“Studio Gang is on to something here: a creative fusion of nature, found materials, inventive engineering, structural economy, and a matter-of-fact environmental awareness. And, of course, style... Gang’s architecture promises to soar in the coming years, whether built close to the ground and down to a budget, or 82 storeys up into the skies above Chicago.”
—Critic Jonathan Glancey in The Guardian, October 20, 2009