Streetscape

It just seems as if the rise in the general consciousness of sustainability—Green is the New Black and all—has suddenly reached critical mass. Architectural and industrial designers have been way ahead of this trend, promoting awareness of (and solutions to) environmental issues for decades. Ideas like recycled materials and increased energy efficiencies have long been standard expressions in the architectural dialogue. It’s just taken awhile for the client base to come around.

While design-related programming at the Chicago Humanities Festival may seem a little lost among the music, dance, drama and the political/ethical/social topics panels, there are a few choice events.

Two of the city’s most important young architects, each of whom has made a mark in the green arena in addition to achieving overall design distinction, will participate in “Breakthroughs in Sustainable Design” on Sunday 28. Sarah Dunn’s firm, UrbanLab (established with her husband, Martin Felsen), got a lot of attention last year (winning the History Channel’s “City of the Future” contest) for its visionary eco-boulevards concept, which posits a radical reimagining of the regional water-treatment system. John Ronan, meanwhile, has assembled a stellar portfolio of beautifully executed modernist interiors, single-family residences and institutions—most recently the aggressively green Gary Comer Youth Center in South Chicago. He’s also just completed a prototype high school design for the city’s Public Building Commission.

Dunn thinks the community has oversimplified the concept of “sustainability” and suggests we rethink use of the word. “It’s a loaded term,” she says. “Who’s defining it?” She thinks we should consider issues on a more complex level, in terms of overall systems. She’s worried that architects seem to aim blindly for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. “It’s become a checklist, which I guess is easier for bureaucrats to deal with,” she says. She thinks designers would be better off concentrating on overall performance and “appropriateness.”

Ronan says a goal of sustainability is really a given. “Most of it is common sense—what you’d do in any building if you were a good designer,” he says. If you ask him whether there’s anything about dealing with sustainability issues in Chicago that makes it different than the rest of the country, he answers emphatically: “Mayor Daley. He’s really embraced the concept and is pushing it. It’s unusual because in most places this happens as a grassroots effort, and travels up. Here the influence is top-down.”

Other CHF events for design freaks:
“Sustainable Building in Chicago—A Scorecard”
Tue 30, 6pm, Museum of Contemporary Art
Architect Elva Rubio moderates a panel on how Chicago measures on the sustainability scale.

“Creative Reuse in Design”
Nov 6, 7pm, MCA
Designer Cat Chow and artist Sara Black “examines the growing practice of creatively recycling materials in contemporary art and everyday life.”

“Douglas Kelbaugh with Harrison Fraker: The Greening of the Metropolis”
Nov 11, 1:30pm, Thorne Auditorium
A global survey of urban sustainability issues is delivered by noted academics from the University of Michigan and UC Berkeley.

For more information, visit chfestival.org.