Located in one of the most vibrant yet blighted neighborhoods in Southwest Chicago, HDR Architecture's proposal for the Focal Point Community Campus represents how hospitals can no longer be hermitically sealed from their surroundings; rather, they must embrace the communities in which they reside. Offering a supreme opportunity for this type of change, their concept follows a breakthrough model, which will make it a financially self-sustaining community campus. The vision for the project was developed by Chicago's Saint Anthony Hospital and will be brought to life under The Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, the not-for-profit organization established to develop and maintain the Focal Point property. More images and architects' description after the break.
Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good, the official U.S. representation at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2012), will travel to Chicago in May 2013, and is seeking new projects—urban interventions realized in U.S. cities in the past two years—with an emphasis on those based in Chicago and the Midwest region. The exhibition will be on view through Summer 2013. The exhibition in Chicago will feature a site-specific adaptation of the original exhibition design and will include many of the projects featured in Venice alongside dozens of new projects selected as a result of this open call for submissions. Submissions are due no later than March 6th. For more information, please visit here.
The Chicago Federal Center, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1974, actually consists of three buildings which are arranged around and define the Chicago Federal Plaza. On the eastern side of South Dearborn Street sits the 30-story Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. On the western side, the 42-story John C. Kluczynski Federal Building and the single story Post Office define the plaza.
