Faculty from IIT College of Architecture are members of three of the five design teams chosen to compete in the final phase of a competition to redesign the public spaces of Chicago’s Navy Pier.

Navy Pier is the most popular attraction in Chicago, drawing nearly nine million visitors annually. Navy Pier, Inc., the newly formed not-for-profit entrusted with the redevelopment and operation of the Pier is conducting an international search for a design team to reimagine the pier’s outdoor public spaces, or Pierscape. This work at Navy Pier provides the opportunity for a design team to have a profound impact on one of the most important and visible public places in Chicago.

Teams were directed to form with representatives from landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, communication and graphic design, lighting design, art curation, engineering, and other relevant disciplines. After two phases of the competition, five teams were chosen as finalists and announced last week. The five finalists will submit design proposals, fee estimates, and participate in oral interviews with Navy Pier. In early 2012, Navy Pier intends to select a design team or teams with whom it would work to complete the design and bring it to fruition.

• The Aedas Architects team includes Assistant Professor Marshall Brown‘s Marshall Brown Projects.
• The !melk team includes Studio Associate Professor Martin Felsen‘s UrbanLab and Adjunct Professor Terry Guen‘s Terry Guen Design Associates.
• The James Corner Field Opertaions team also includes Terry Guen Design Associates.

Read more about the Navy Pier design competition on Blair Kamin’s Chicago Tribune blog or the official website.

The Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat (CTBUH), based at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, is expanding its activities to include research on high-rise building standards. CTBUH will develop design guidelines for wind-tunnel testing, structural outriggers, performance-based seismic design, column shortening, foundations and natural ventilation.  The guidelines are an effort to standardize practice worldwide, resulting in better tall buildings overall.

Studio Associate Professor Susan Conger-Austin conducted a five-day postgraduate seminar in November, hosted by Escola Da Cidade in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This was the first US-Brazil seminar hosted by Escola Da Cidade and it engaged 30 postgraduate professionals from Brazil, Portugal, and Canada. Conger-Austin’s lectures and expertise in international design workshops were part of a larger three-month series on contemporary US architecture. The seminar was part of Conger-Austin’s ongoing efforts to create broader cultural and educational exchange between the IIT College of Architecture and Escola Da Cidade.