UPTOWN NORMAL CIRCLE

Normal’s 2001 renewal plan included the first ordinance in the country to enforce minimum LEED requirements for new buildings, centrally located multi-modal links to regional and local transit, and restructured and densified parking. The project’s aim was to revitalize and intensify Normal’s downtown, which had been in decline for decades. The focal point of the redevelopment plan was a central park area affording residents the opportunity to gather, congregate, and play.

The video explores how the design of a central park inside of a roundabout has created a powerful sense of place for the entire community.

The Normal Circle design artfully brings together sustainable, aesthetic, and social design intents and uses water and motion to create a “living plaza.” The video explores how the design of a central park inside of a roundabout has created a powerful sense of place for the entire community.

The video was filmed within the shadow of a fight for social justice that loomed heavily over a community still struggling to overcome a global pandemic. The town needed a central place to connect and heal, and today, the Circle functions as the beating heart of the community.

75th Street Boardwalk

SITE TEAM site

Booth Hansen

Brook Architecture

Brown and Momen Illinois Institute of Technology, College of Architecture

Krueck Sexton Partners

Vladimir Radutny Architects

CATEGORY General Design, Constructed was designed with community health, safety, and well-being in mind, incorporating built-in planters that create ambiance, while the planter walls meet strict local streetscape safety requirements and separate the Boardwalk from adjacent traffic.

The Boardwalk was designed to be simple and use basic construction methods in order to empower, educate, and build the skills of community youth.

Located in the heart of Chicago’s South Side Chatham community, the 75th Street Boardwalk activates the public right-of-way by replacing onstreet parking spaces with safe outdoor dining and gathering opportunities for Black-owned businesses and the community.

MERIT AWARD

The 75th Street Boardwalk is organized as a series of modular outdoor rooms designed to benefit the community while also serving the adjacent businesses’ needs. The modules include five key themes: Eat, Play, Shop, Relax, and Exercise. Each module is unique, ranging from seating areas to fitness, games, dining, and more. The Boardwalk

Residents, business owners, and community leaders were deeply involved in all stages from the initial meet-and-greet to the Boardwalk’s construction. Another critical component was the central mission to connect Black contractors with Black youth in the community to empower, educate, and build the skills of community youth.

Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital

The Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital campus design is motivated by the institution’s mission to provide opportunities for healing and activities for hospital patients, visitors, and staff as well as the larger community of Lake Forest. Embracing the bold opportunities afforded by the 300-acre site, the campus design utilizes grading and stormwater management to create a rich landscape setting that gives the hospital a natural sense of place.

The design is a model of symbiosis between site, program, architecture, and mission, creating an environment that spatially manifests the hospital’s mission of health and wellness in the built environment. The arboretum-like setting takes advantage of the existing elements of wetlands, forests, and open fields, while walkways and bike paths connect a series of natural amenities and hospital facilities that thread through the campus. Using an existing descent in grade across the site and employing strategies for sustainable stormwater collection, the design situates the hospital over a two-level reclaimed wetland.

The arboretum-like setting features natural amenities that take advantage of the existing elements wetlands, forests, and open fields.

HOERR SCHAUDT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS

TEAM

Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects

Alvéole Urban Beekeeping BEAR Construction Company

Christy Webber Landscapes

Columbia Green Technologies

Gensler

JLL

MacRostie Historic Advisors

Telos Group

CATEGORY

General Design, Constructed

The design for this urban rooftop centers on integrating the urban landscape with the natural. A colorful tapestry of garden rooms and recreation spaces creates an environment that transforms a former industrial building to a modern office community. The Meadow — the nation’s largest private rooftop garden — provides green space that gives occupants the rare opportunity to relax, recharge, and recreate. It prevents stormwater from becoming polluted runoff, while its plants capture CO2 and decrease energy consumption and emissions.

The Meadow — the nation’s largest private rooftop garden — gives occupants the rare opportunity to relax, recharge, and recreate.

The Chicago Post Office had not had a letter pass through it in over a decade, and the stunning, art-deco building that had just attained National Historic Registry status was abandoned in 1997. Several redevelopment efforts took place before its renovation was entrusted to Gensler’s team of designers in 2016. The task was to transform an industrial warehouse into a modern workplace.

The rooftop comes at an especially relevant time as employees navigate the return to work post-quarantine. Seating niches and collaboration pods allow tenants to safely work and socialize outside.