Awards, Press, and Publications
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Virgil Abloh, Edith Farnsworth, and Midcentury Modernism
Elizabeth Blasius reviews two new books threaded together by Midcentury Modernism: Make it Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh (Crown, 2025) by Robin Givhan and Almost Nothing: Reclaiming Edith Farnsworth (University of Illinois Press, 2025) by Nora Wendl.
Helmut Jahn's James R. Thompson Center and the Aesthetics of Postmodern Citizenship
One does not need to look very far in architectural circles to see that postmodern aesthetics—signature colors and shapes of the 1980s now deployed as jaunty retorts to the seriousness of the last decade’s computational forms—are back in style...
From Resources to Rubble: Evaluating Chicago’s Demolition Delay Ordinance in its Twentieth Year
As the 2003 Demolition Delay Ordinance turns twenty, Elizabeth Blasius writes in her monthly column about the successes and failures of this ordinance as well as the need to think about Chicago’s demolition problem holistically.
Press
2025
The fifth Exhibit Columbus delivers a range of community-focused design commissions, Jack Murphy, The Architect's Newspaper, September 3, 2025
Exhibit Columbus’s Improv Theater–Inspired 2025 Exhibition Opens to the Public, Matt Hickman, Architectural Record, September, 2025
Columbus, Indiana’s architecture festival embraces the spirit of Chicago improv with ‘Yes And,’ Ed Keegan, Chicago Tribune, November, 2025
The Case for Old-Looking, New Affordable Housing, Anjulie Rao, Dwell, November, 2025
2024
GSA opts to preserve Century & Consumer Buildings in Chicago, saving them from demolition, Daniel Jonas Roche, The Architects Newspaper, August 5, 2024
Hammy Wammy raises the bar for postmodern revival in Chicago, Daniel Jonas Roche, AN Interiors, February 22, 2024
2023
This July, Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley are commemorated with national monuments, landmarks, and art, Daniel Jonas Roche, The Architect's Newspaper, July 28, 2023
President Joe Biden creates Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Chicago and Mississippi, Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times, July 25, 2023
Preservationists Don’t Put Too Fine a Point On It in Their Maximalist Postmodern Reno, Zach Mortice, Dwell, September, 2023
2022
National Park Service Agrees: Till Story Should Be Preserved, NPCA, December 21, 2022
Google Buys Thompson Center, Will Preserve Much Loved, Loathed Loop Landmark, Chicago Tonight interviews Elizabeth Blasius, WTTW, July 27, 2022
Google to buy, renovate Chicago’s Thompson Center, Sasha-Ann Simons interviews Jonathan Solomon, WBEZ Chicago, July 29, 2022
2021
Preservation Advocates Continue Pursuit Of Landmark Status For Thompson Center, Nereida Moreno, WBEZ Chicago, June 29, 2021
Preservationists protest Thompson Center sale, Maggie Prosser, Chicago Tribune, June 23, 2021
Research, Action and Design: Preservation Futures Seeks to Elevate the Social and Cultural History Embedded in Places and Spaces, Vasia Rigou, Newcity, April 21, 2021
Awards
2021
New City, Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago, 2022