Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced plans for an international architecture exhibition that will take place in the city in late 2015. Modeled after Italy’s prestigious Venice Architecture Biennale, officials hope that the Chicago Architecture Biennial will boost tourism and help develop the city’s reputation as a progressive design center.
The inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial will be co-curated by Sarah Herda, director of the Graham Foundation, which provides project-based grants to individuals and organizations and supports architecture’s role in the arts, culture, and society, and Joseph Grima, former editor-in-chief of the architecture and design magazine, Domus. Grima previously co-curated the 2012 Istanbul Design Biennial. Herda and Grima will develop the Biennial’s program with help from a swath of influential architects including, David Adjaye, Elizabeth Diller, Frank Gehry, Jeanne Gang, and Stanley Tigerman, as well as curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Pritzker Prize Jury Chair Peter Palumbo. The team will draw inspiration from Chicago’s rich architectural landscape, which includes buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, and Louis Sullivan.
