Studio Offshore/Alexander Eisenschmidt, Lakeshore Hut Project, part of “Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech” exhibition at Druker Design Gallery, Harvard Graduate School of Design, January 23 – March 11, 2018. Curated by K. Michael Hays and Andrew Holder. Continue Reading →
Design for Visual and Performing Arts Center at UIC on view at Gallery 400, August 10 – 27, 2016; 400 South Peoria Street, Chicago, IL 60607.
The new building for the Visual + Performing Arts Center at UIC is conceived as an “Arts Campus,” a nexus between the different departments of the College of Architecture, Design and the Arts as well as between UIC and the city. As such, the architecture of the center is more than just a building, it becomes an urban platform on which the different constituencies meet. It houses a concert hall, theaters, performance spaces, rehearsal rooms, an art school, gallery spaces, and offices.
A collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio (architecture), Alexander Eisenschmidt (Urban Design), Misha Leiner / CoDe (graphic design), Webb Yates (engineering). Continue Reading →
Visionary Cities Project / Alexander Eisenschmidt with Matthew van der Ploeg, Monument to Missed Opportunities for the 7th Ward, Chicago. Exhibited as part of “50 Designers, 50 Ideas, 50 Wards,” Chicago Architecture Foundation, May 24 – December 1, 2016.
Continue Reading →
Visionary Cities Project / Alexander Eisenschmidt, Collective City exhibition at the 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen, China, December 4, 2015 – March 1, 2016.
Collective City, explores spatial, organizational, and material ingenuities born out of the forces and pressures of the contemporary city, answered by the architectural amateur, and used by everyone. For more information, see Visionary Cities Project.
Curtain system design for the art exhibition “Into Body Into Wall” by Maria Gaspar at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago, September-December 2015.
Co-organizer and curator of Chicagoisms exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Kurokawa Gallery, April 24, 2014 – January 4, 2015. Exhibition design by Studio Offshore (Eisenschmidt) in collaboration with graphic designer Matthew Wizinsky.
120 images, nine models, and five principles. The exhibition builds on the premise of the book Chicagoisms. Revisiting the characteristics, attitudes, and mentalities of the city’s past, it mines the history of Chicago to define principles of architectural action and urban engagement: Vision Shapes History, Optimism Trumps Planning, Ambition Overcomes Nature, Technology Makes Spectacle, and Crisis Provokes Innovation. These Chicagoisms are also deployed here as springboards for new experiments as local and international teams of architects conceived visions inspired by the city that project as models from an array of historical imagery, together constructing a panorama of alternative urban worlds.
In collaboration with architectural historian Jonathan Mekinda and graphic designer Matthew Wizinsky, and with contributions by Bureau Spectacular, DOGMA, MVRDV, ORG, PORT, Sam Jacob Studio, Sean Lally/Weathers, UrbanLab, and WW.
Produced first for the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice (2012), a redesigned and expanded version of the panorama was on display at the city of Chicago’s Cultural Center Expo 72 Gallery, measuring 160′ in length.
The Visionary Cities Project developed an iPhone app in collaboration with Cheng+Snyder (www.chengsnyder.com). This app not only visualizes the large amount of visionary proposals for the city of Chicago but also accompanies the Visionary Chicago Panorama at the exhibition City Works in order to give access to the many projects in the drawing. While the panorama composes a parallel unbuilt city within the confines of the gallery, the iPhone app makes connections to the existing city outside. Here, knowledge about these schemes escapes the gallery and ventures into the city. It allows users to locate and visualize past utopian schemes while traveling through Chicago, with the goal of encouraging playful urban speculation in the present. Download the free iPhone app here.
Excerpts of the movie were screened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (2012) and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (2012). duration: 6 min
Studio Offshore began its collaborative practice in 2006. For more information about design projects visit www.studio-offshore.com.
