Studio Gang is an American architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Paris. Founded and led by architect Jeanne Gang, the Studio is known for its material research and experimentation, collaboration across a wide range of disciplines, and focus on sustainability. The firm's works range in scale and typology from the 82-story mixed-use Aqua Tower to the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College to the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo. Studio Gang has won numerous awards for design excellence, including the 2016 Architizer A+ Firm of the Year Award and the 2013 National Design Award for Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, as well as various awards from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and AIA Chicago.
Background
The firm was founded by Jeanne Gang in 1997.
One of the Studio's first built works, the Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre, was completed in 2003, and won praise from critics; the Chinese American Service League Kam Liu Center, finished the following year, garnered the firm additional accolades. Aqua Tower and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, both completed in 2010, significantly increased the Studio's global profile, winning acclaim from architecture critics.
The Studio has played a significant role in reshaping urban landscapes with a focus on ecological restoration and environmental stewardship. Projects include the revitalization of Tom Lee Park in Memphis that reconnects people to the long-neglected riverfront; two boathouses on the Chicago River that opened up access to the river's edge; and the transformation of a former Chicago airfield, Northerly Island, into a public lakefront park and biodiverse habitat.
In 2023, the Studio completed several major cultural and educational projects, including the reimagination of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, an adaptive reuse project, which was praised as a "new architectural landmark"; and the Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at The American Museum of Natural History in New York, described by the New York Times as "a poetic, joyful, theatrical work of public architecture and a highly sophisticated flight of sculptural fantasy".
The Studio employs more than 140 people as of December 2023.
Notable works
Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation
The $465 million Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History opened in May 2023. The addition includes six floors above ground, and one below. The Richard Gilder Center welcomes visitors with a new, accessible entrance on Columbus Avenue that connects to central five-story atrium and creates more than 30 connections to the existing museum. The atrium's architecture is informed by natural form-making processes such as the movement of wind and water that shape geological landscapes. To achieve the continuous visual form, the atrium is constructed with shotcrete. The curvilinear façade contrasts with the earlier High Victorian Gothic, Richardson Romanesque and Beaux Arts structures, but its Milford Pink granite cladding is the same stone used on the Museum's west side.
St. Regis Chicago
The St. Regis Chicago, formerly Wanda Vista Tower, is a 101-story, supertall skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. Construction started in August 2016, and was completed in 2020. Upon completion it became the city's third-tallest building, surpassing the Aon Center. It is the tallest structure in the world designed by a woman, and forms a part of the Lakeshore East development and overlooks the Chicago River near Lake Michigan. The building comprises three interconnected volumes of different heights. Truncated pyramids called "frustums" are stacked in an alternating sequence, right-side-up and upside-down, lending the design its flowing rhythm. The towers have 6 different shades of glass. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin praised the tower as "a stirring work of skyline artistry...as if the waters of Lake Michigan had burst upward and transformed themselves into fluid, undulating tiers of glass." The tower has a notably smaller footprint than other supertalls in Chicago with a building height-to-core aspect ratio of 40-to-1.
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
The redevelopment of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) involved a comprehensive transformation of the existing building and grounds, resulting in a facility. Studio Gang's design reused and restored as many of the existing structures as possible, which spanned multiple eras and architectural styles dating back to 1937. The Studio's design introduced a distinctive central addition that unites the entire complex, and "blossoms" out at the north and south ends to create new entrances and social spaces for the community. The design provides a renewed identity for AMFA, while also establishing visual and physical connections to the surrounding park and the neighborhoods beyond.
Selected projects
Education and research ProjectLocationStatusYear The University of Chicago John W. Boyer Center in Paris Paris, France Completed 2024Kresge College Residential Buildings Santa Cruz, CACompleted2023Kresge College Academic Center Santa Cruz, CACompleted2023 Beloit College Powerhouse Beloit, WI Completed 2020 University of Chicago Campus North Residential Commons Chicago, IL Completed 2016 Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo, MI Completed 2014 Columbia College Chicago Media Production Center Chicago, IL Completed 2010One Milestone West Boston, MAUnder Construction2023David Rubenstein Treehouse Boston, MAUnder Construction2023Spelman College Center for Innovation & the Arts Atlanta, GACompleted2025California College of the Arts Campus Expansion San Francisco, CACompleted2024
Nature, culture, and community ProjectLocationStatusYearRescue Company 2 (New York City Fire Department) New York, NYCompleted2019 Northerly Island Chicago, IL Ongoing 2017Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History New York, NYCompleted2023Civic Commons United StatesCompleted2016Eleanor Boathouse at Park 571 Chicago, ILCompleted2016 National Aquarium Strategic Master Plan Baltimore, MD Design concept completed 2016 Writers Theatre Glencoe, IL Completed 2016 PAHC Studio Chicago, IL Completed 2014 WMS Boathouse at Clark Park Chicago, IL Completed 2013 The Conservation Center Chicago, IL Completed 2012 Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural and Pop Music Center Kaohsiung Competition design completed 2011 Blue Wall Center Greenville, SC Design concept completed 2010 Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, IL Completed 2010 Taipei Pop Music Center Taipei Competition design completed 2010 Ford Calumet Environmental Center Calumet City, IL Design concept completed 2008 SOS Children's Villages Lavezzorio Community Center Chicago, IL Completed 2008 HafenCity Chicago Square Hamburg Design concept completed 2006 Chinese American Service League Kam Liu Center Chicago, IL Completed 2004 Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre at Rock Valley College Rockford, IL Completed 2003Tom Lee Park Memphis, TNCompleted2023Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Little Rock, ARCompleted2023Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Garrison, NYIn design2023
Towers ProjectLocationStatusYearOne Delisle Toronto, ONUnder Construction2026 St. Regis Chicago Chicago, IL Completed 2022 11 Hoyt New York, NY Completed 2021One Hundred St. Louis, MOCompleted2020 Solar Carve (40 Tenth Avenue) New York, NY Completed 2019 Solstice on the Park Chicago, IL Completed 2018 MIRA San Francisco, CA Completed 2017 City Hyde Park Chicago, IL Completed 2016 Shoreland Chicago, IL Completed 2014 Recombinant House (Garden in the Machine) Cicero, IL Design concept completed 2012 Aqua Tower Chicago, IL Completed 2010 Vancouver Pair Vancouver, BC Design concept completed 2010 Hyderabad O2 Hyderabad Design concept completed 2008 HafenCity Crane Tower Hamburg Design concept completed 2006 Zhong Bang Village Shanghai Competition design completed 2003Q Residences AmsterdamCompleted2022
Exhibitions ProjectLocationStatusYearArkansas Museum of Fine Arts Little Rock, ARCompleted2023Dimensions of Discovery: Environments for Learning Paris, FranceCompleted2023Studio Gang Mock-Ups Chicago, ILCompleted2022Good News: Women in Architecture Rome, ItalyCompleted2021A Different Future in the Making Chicago, ILCompleted2020Baleinopolis: The Secret Societies of Cetaceans Paris, FranceCompleted2019Stage Buoys Chicago, ILCompleted2017Hive Washington, D.C.Completed2017Working in America Chicago, ILCompleted2016 Thinning Ice at Design Miami Miami, FL Completed 2014 Changes of Phase for Thodos Dance Chicago Chicago, IL Completed 2014 EXPO Chicago Chicago, IL Completed 2012 –2014 Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects at the Art Institute of Chicago Chicago, IL Completed 2012 –2013 Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream at the Museum of Modern Art New York, NY Completed 2012 Baseball in the City at the Art Institute of Chicago Chicago, IL Completed 2004 Marble Curtain at the National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Completed 2003
Planning ProjectLocationStatusYear Enterprise Research Campus Plan Boston, MA Completed 2022 Kresge College Expansion at the University of California, Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA Completed 2019Neighborhood Activation to Increase Public Safety through Community-Empowered Design and Planning Chicago, ILCompleted2021River Edge Ideas Lab Chicago, ILCompleted2017Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice Neighborhood Activation Study New York, NYCompleted 2018Memphis Riverfront Concept Memphis, TNCompleted2017Neighborhood Schools Reuse Concept Memphis, TNCompleted2018Port District Planning Study Milwaukee, WICompleted2015Civic Commons Philadelphia Philadelphia, PACompleted2016
Selected awards 11 Hoyt Receives Honor at 2023 AIA NY Design Awards Institute Honor Award, Interior Architecture, AIA Awards, 2017 / Writers Theatre Daniel Burnham Award for Master Planning, AIA Illinois, 2016 / Technical team for Positioning Pullman Divine Detail Award, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 / Writers Theatre Interior Architecture Award, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 / Writers Theatre Distinguished Building Citation of Merit, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 / Writers Theatre Divine Detail Award, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 / City Hyde Park Distinguished Building Citation of Merit, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2016 / City Hyde Park Institute Honor Award, Architecture, AIA Awards, 2016 / WMS Boathouse at Clark Park Architizer A+ Firm of the Year, 2016 Award for Excellence in Design, Thirty-third Annual Design Awards, Public Design Commission, New York, 2015 / Rescue Company 2 Distinguished Building Award, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2015 / Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Divine Detail Award, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2015 / Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership Honor Award, AIA Illinois, 2015 / Northerly Island Distinguished Building Citation of Merit, Design Excellence Awards, AIA Chicago, 2014 / WMS Boathouse at Clark Park National Design Award, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction Acknowledgement Prize North America, 2011, for the Ford Calumet Environmental Center Distinguished Building Honor Award, AIA Chicago, 2011, for the Nature Boardwalk, Education Pavilion and South Pond Transformation at Lincoln Park Zoo Most Compassionate Architectural Firm, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 2009 Skyscraper of the Year Award, Emporis, 2009, for the Aqua Tower Emerging Visions Award, AIA Chicago, 2000 & 2006 Neighborhood Development Award, 3rd place, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, 2005, for the Chinese American Service League
References
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