Living Histories: Space for Reckoning

About the program

Living Histories: Space for Reckoning

at 840 N. Michigan Ave

840 N. Michigan Ave

Public hours are Wednesday–Sunday, 12:00–6:00 p.m., with extended evening hours on Thursdays until 8:00 p.m. Note: This location will be closed on Saturday, November 22.

How do we ensure public spaces tell the complex and interconnected histories that have shaped our culture and inform who we are? How do we bring to light those stories that lie buried just beneath the surface of a society, in ways that allow us to confront the harder and sometimes brutal realities of our entangled pasts? How might we reckon publicly and explicitly with these histories in order to set a foundation for healing? Architecture critic Mark Lamster, landscape architect Chris Reed, and architect Mónica Ponce de León will engage in a conversation around these issues centered around a proposal for downtown Dallas, Texas.

Participant

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STOSS Landscape Urbanism + MPdL Studio with Mark Lamster

Ann Arbor, Boston, Los Angeles, and Princeton, United States

Website

STOSS is a landscape architecture and urbanism studio known for designing public spaces that foster social equity, environmental health, and community vitality led by Chris Reed. From coastal resiliency plans to urban parks and brownfield restorations, STOSS engages complex sites with a research-driven and community-centered approach. Their work aims to reimagine neglected or underused spaces into places of pride, joy, and collective care– earning them national and international accolades such as the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, the Topos International Landscape Award, and two Progressive Architecture awards. 

MPdL Studio is an architecture and design practice led by Mónica Ponce de León, founding Principal of MPdL Studio and Dean of the Princeton University School of Architecture. Deeply committed to the public role of architecture, the interdisciplinary practice believes in the power of design to change human experiences. Through continued experimentation and material consideration, the extensive work demonstrates possible futures for architecture and beyond. 

Together, STOSS + MPdL Studio bring a multidisciplinary, inclusive, and forward-thinking lens to design—one that transforms both spaces and the communities they serve.

Mark Lamster is the architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News and a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His biography of the late architect Philip Johnson, The Man in the Glass House (Little Brown, 2018), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his writing, including the Rabkin Prize for Arts Journalism and the Flowers Medal from the Texas Society of Architects. For more than a decade, he served as an editor at Princeton Architectural Press in New York.

Venue

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840 N. Michigan Ave

Address

840 N. Michigan Ave

Description

The Biennial expands its footprint downtown with the opening of its fifth site at 840 N. Michigan Avenue, transforming more than 65,000 square feet of space on the Magnificent Mile into a dynamic hub for art, design, and dialogue. 

Photo by Bob. (Robert Heishman + Robert Salazar)
Chicago Architecture Biennial