Renzo Piano Building Workshop • Architect
Architect Renzo Piano’s building workshop was established in 1981 with offices in Genoa, Italy, and Paris, France. The workshop employs 70 full-time architects with a support staff of 20, which includes CAD operators, model makers, archivists, and administrative and secretarial staff.

The workshop has completed projects around the world, including: the Menil Collection in Houston and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, Kansai International Airport terminal in Osaka, Japan, the Kanak Cultural Center in Nouméa, New Caledonia, reconstruction of the Potsdamer Platz area in Berlin, the Macquarie/Phillip Street office tower in Sydney, and the new Rome Auditorium.

Projects currently in progress are: the Woodruff Arts Center expansion in Atlanta, the new California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, the New York Times Building, the renovation of the Morgan Library and expansion of the Whitney Museum in New York City, and the expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Exhibitions of RPBW’s work have been held in many cities worldwide, including a major retrospective at the Pompidou in 2000, the New National Gallery in Berlin, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2005.

Renzo Piano has been recognized with many international awards and honors, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998.

Interactive Design • Local Architect
Interactive Design, Inc., was founded in 1992 to provide architectural and planning services to public, private, and institutional clients. The staff composes experienced architects who have a unique combination of qualifications that allow the firm to undertake a wide variety of projects. The architectural team has considerable expertise in areas as diverse as municipal buildings, including fire and police facilities for the Public Building Commission and the Department of General Services; library planning and design for the Chicago Public Library; senior apartments and housing for disabled veterans for Catholic Charities; a zoo habitat and animal handling area for Lincoln Park Zoo (which included the Farm-In-The-Zoo, winner of a Distinguished Building Award of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects); historic preservation projects, another Chicago Landmark Award Winner; and responsible the Capital Improvement Program for the Chicago Public Schools.

Interactive Design is a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and a Disadvantaged Buisiness Enterprise (DBE) certified with the City of Chicago, and a member of the Green Building Council.

Gustufson, Guthrie, Nichol • Landscape Architects

The designs of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol express the sculptural qualities of site-specific, contextual landscape. GGN’s multi-disciplinary work strengthens each site’s identity of culture, nature, history, and function.

Gustafson, Guthrie, Nichol offers special experience in designing high-use landscapes in complex, urban contexts. Their work involves substantial collaboration with other disciplines. On rooftops, over freeways, between buildings, or suspended in the air, GGN’s unusual landscapes are designed as sensuous, connected settings for diverse and ever-changing activities.

GGN integrates the intricacies of human experience, natural functions, and the vicissitude of landscape into boldly sculpted forms. This produces award-winning, contemporary landscapes that feel comfortable at all times, whether bustling with crowds, offering moments of contemplation, or doing both at once.

As author Jane Amidon describes, GGN’s “gentle warping and cutting (or cupping and canting) of landform in both plan and section allows a flexible perception of spatial volume, enabling the site to be ‘empty when full, full when empty.’”

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, in Seattle, and Gustafson Porter, in London, work throughout the world. Founded in Seattle by partners Kathryn Gustafson, Jennifer Guthrie, and Shannon Nichol, GGN applies site-responsive design methods in the Americas and Asia. GGN is a full-service landscape architectural firm.

The Rise Group • Project Management
The Rise Group [http://www.risegroup.com] has established itself as a leader in providing professional construction program and project management services on major cultural building programs, including the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Grand Rapids Art Museum; and the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Headquartered in Chicago, Rise is proud of its work with such Chicago institutions as the University of Chicago, the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Rise also serves the City of Chicago, the Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Public Schools, and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority. Rise recently completed the new corporate headquarters for Crate and Barrel and for William Wrigley, Jr., Company’s new Global Innovation Center. Rise provides clients with leadership through effective strategic guidance, deep technical expertise, and management oversight.

Arup • Engineering
Arup is a global firm providing engineering design, planning, and project management services in all areas of the built environment.

Formed in 1946, the firm now has more than 7,000 staff based in 70 offices in 32 countries, and projects have taken the firm to more than 160 countries. Arup has nine offices in North America, including a recently established office in Chicago.

The firm, which is wholly owned in trust for the benefit of its employees, enjoys total financial independence and has an annual turnover in excess of $750 million. Arup is committed to sustainable design, to its increasing incorporation in its projects, and to industry-wide sustainability initiatives.

Arup is providing the following engineering and design services in the new wing for the Art Institute: structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, lighting, and acoustics.

Arup has a longstanding working relationship with Renzo Piano, which began in 1971 with the successful competition entry for the Pompidou Center in Paris. Since then Piano and Arup have collaborated on a number of high-profile museum projects, including the Menil Collection in Houston, the Beyeler Museum in Basel, Switzerland, and the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.

Turner Construction Company • Construction
Turner Construction Company has been building projects in the Chicago area since 1926 and is a leader in the commercial, health care, interiors, sports/entertainment, pharmaceutical, and institutional construction markets. Through Turner’s charity foundation, numerous civic and volunteer activities, and partnerships cultivated to generate positive business climates for women- and minority-owned businesses, Turner has a long history of working with and a proven commitment to the city of Chicago.

Turner has played a major part in shaping Chicago’s skyline and is responsible for the construction of more than 100 buildings in the Chicago region.

Current projects include, One South Dearborn, Village of Bridgeview soccer stadium, Northwestern University Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center, Exelon headquarters, Chicago Christian Industrial League, Catholic Theological Union, and the Swedish Amercian Hospital projects. Turner’s portfolio of recently completed Chicago projects includes the adaptive reuse of Soldier Field, Boeing’s new world headquarters, Shedd Aquarium renovations, the University of Chicago’s new graduate school of business, University Center Chicago, AON headquarters, and the ABN AMRO plaza.