Via PR

The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is thrilled to announce the opening of the CAB Studio—a new, year-round exhibition space located on the first floor of the Chicago Cultural Center. The Studio is a space to explore design and present innovative ideas. Here, CAB will host exhibitions, programs, and events, including youth and family activities.  

CAB Studio opens with the exhibition, Architecture of Reparations, by New York-based collaborative Riff Studio, including designers Rekha Auguste-Nelson, Farnoosh Rafaie, and Isabel Strauss. Core to this exhibition is a request for proposals (RFP) that incorporates public policy, architectural history, and reparations to address erasure in Bronzeville, a historic South Side Chicago neighborhood—one of many Black Metropolises in the twentieth century. While the vestiges of architectural legacies are visible on the streets of Bronzeville today, there are significant spatial voids on most blocks. Architecture of Reparations asks the question: why are these buildings missing?   

On view is a visual narrative of Bronzeville’s architectural history alongside responses received from the open RFP. Contributors include Kofi Akakpo, Rekha Auguste-Nelson, William Boles, Calvin Boyd, Sean Canty, Darien Carr, Amir Denzel Hall, DJ Eway, Evalyn Gates, Christina Graydon, Brayton Gregory, Camila Guerrero, Daniel Haidermota, Whitney Hansley, Aryan Khalighy, Shen Li, Celeste Martore, Adam Maserow, Jaline McPherson, Marcus Mello, Zena Mengesha, Andrew M. Ngure, Omotara Oluwafemi, Naila Opiangah, Farnoosh Rafaie, Gabriel Ramos, and Isabel Strauss. 

A version of Architecture of Reparations was originally presented in the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial titled The Available City, led by Artistic Director David Brown, and exhibited at the Graham Foundation and the Bronzeville Artist Lofts.  

For more information about Architecture of Reparations and upcoming programs, visit chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org

Architecture of Reparations 
Exhibition opens March 30, 2022 
CAB Studio at the Chicago Cultural Center 
78 East Washington Street, Chicago, IL 
chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org 

Free and open to the public 7 days a week from 10 a.m.— 5 p.m. 
 

Image: Isabel Strauss, “Gaze,” digital collage, 2021. Including elements from Howardena Pindell, Untitled #51, 2010; Lorna Simpson, Earth & Sky, #30, 2016; Richard Nickel, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Avery Coonley Residence, 300 Scottswood Road, Riverside, Illinois, designed or built 1907