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UrbanLab: Sarah Dunn + Martin Felsen

Monday, January 31, 2005
7:00 P.M. - Lawrence J. Plym Auditorium
Temple Hoyne Buell Hall

Architecture Lecture Funds

About UrbanLab

UrbanLab is an architecture and urban design practice, providing design services for a wide range of project types. UrbanLab won the 2003 Emerging Visions Competition, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and Chicago Architecture Club. The award is given bi-yearly to the best young architecture firm in the Midwest. UrbanLab has also recently placed highly in a number of invited and open international design competitions, including as finalist in the Ford Calumet Environmental Center Competition and 2nd Alternate in the Perth Amboy High School Competition.

Projects

Current architecture projects include the design of several single-family houses, multifamily housing, a live/work space, a museum exhibition, and a food store. Current urban design projects include a study for a two square mile area along 16th street in the Pilsen area of Chicago. A list of recent projects can be viewed @ www.urbanlab.com.

Research

UrbanLab is also a research laboratory actively engaged in examining the Chicago megalopolis. A new project, chil.us, examines Chicago's status as a global city. On the website www.chil.us, the current condition of the Chicago Megalopolis is revealed with maps, diagrams and statistics. The project charts comparative states of Chicago's land use, growth, population densities, energy/natural resources, infrastructural networks, and economic/leisure activities. The research project is an effort to document a broad informational context for those currently working on and/or thinking about the design and planning of Chicago.

Exhibition / Publication

UrbanLab's recent work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Chicago Architectural Club, I Space, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts. UrbanLab's work has been published in several architecture and art journals.

Partners

UrbanLab's partners are Martin Felsen, a licensed architect and Studio Associate Professor in the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Sarah Dunn, Assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Illinois, Chicago. Both partners graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture.