2011 Burnham Prize Competition: "McCormick Place REDUX"

The Chicago Architectural Club is pleased to announce the 2011 Burnham Prize Competition. This year’s competition is co-sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects Chicago and Landmarks Illinois and is intended to examine the controversial legacy and questionable future of the McCormick Place East Building, the 1971 modernist convention hall designed by Gene Summers of C.F. Murphy Associates and sited on the lakefront in Burnham Park.

Built on land meant to be “forever open, clear, and free”, considered obsolete by its owners, and an eyesore by open space advocates, Summer’s design for McCormick Place East is nevertheless a powerfully elegant exploration of some of modernism’s deepest concerns. What alternate role might the building play in Chicago should it be decommissioned as a convention hall? What might you do with nearly a million square feet of space (and the 4,200 seat Arie Crown theatre) on the lakefront?

“McCormick Place REDUX” is an international single-stage ideas competition open to students, designers, architects, planners, artists, and landscape architects.

Competition Website