A strong studio semester in the books. Thanks to the Discovery Partners Institute, Related Midwest, OMA, and the Chicago Architecture Center, our spring studio looked at a spinoff to the new DPI building announced last year for The 78, Related’s new development along the Chicago River’s South Branch.

The premise is that researchers will need to take work done by DPI to commercial markets and that it makes sense for an Accelerator/Incubator to be convenient to the new DPI building as a ‘stair step’ for burgeoning companies. Our program looked at what such a building would look like and what it would need beyond the requirements of a simple office building. The mix of public spaces, presentation facilities, collaborative work areas, wet labs, and maker spaces proved inspiring and challenging. Teams dove into research on these elements, precedents, and the history and current demography of the site and neighborhood, and they extended a lot of the initial thinking by looking at mass timber, passive ventilation, and solar shading, among other aspects of sustainable design.

Teams presented to an all-star jury earlier this month in the CAC lecture hall. Highlights below–I’d say “hire these folks,” but (not surprisingly) most are already spoken for. A bunch of rock stars…