Lakefront Competition

The Chicago Architecture Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition is a featured component of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial, a key part of Mayor Emanuel’s continuing efforts to promote architecture as one of Chicago’s thriving cultural sectors and to create new cultural experiences in the city’s neighborhoods and parks.

“Our parks are a vital part of our city’s heritage, and the Lakefront Kiosk Competition is an opportunity to bring progressive design to one of Chicago’s most celebrated urban spaces,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

Open to international applicants, the competition is a call for design proposals for a kiosk – a small-scale work of architecture – that will be installed in Spring 2016 along the iconic shoreline of Lake Michigan, one of the city’s most vibrant public spaces.

The winner will be announced in May 2015 and will receive the BP Prize, to be presented at the opening of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and will be awarded a $10,000 honorarium for design development and a construction budget of $75,000 to realize the kiosk. Before being installed on the lakefront, the winning kiosk will be on display in Millennium Park during the Chicago Architecture Biennial (October 2015 – January 2016).

The Chicago Architecture Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition, an architectural competition organized by the Chicago Architecture Biennial in partnership with the Chicago Park District, is supported by BP, presenting sponsor of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the winner of the competition will receive the “BP Prize.” Applications are due March 23, 2015.

The winner will be selected by a jury that includes renowned architects David Adjaye (London), Jeanne Gang (Chicago), Sharon Johnston (Los Angeles); Chicago Architecture Biennial Artistic Directors Joseph Grima (Genoa) and Sarah Herda, Director of the Graham Foundation (Chicago); Michael O’Brien, Retail Design Director of BP; and Rob Rejman, Chicago Park District Director of Planning and Construction. The Lakefront Kiosk Competition is part of a broader initiative to activate Chicago’s lakefront through new cultural projects. Also under the auspices of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, three additional kiosks will be created that will be designed by an international selection of architects who will work in collaboration with Chicago-based schools of architecture, including the Illinois Institute of Technology, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Chicago Architecture Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition
Submission deadline: March 23, 2015