Studio Gang is an American architecture and urban design practice with offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Paris.[1] 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.[2] The firm's works range in scale and typology from the 82-story mixed-use Aqua Tower to the 10,000-square-foot Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College to the 14-acre 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.
One of the Studio's first built works, the Bengt Sjostrom Starlight Theatre, was completed in 2003, and won praise from critics;[4] the Chinese American Service League Kam Liu Center, finished the following year, garnered the firm additional accolades.[5][6]Aqua Tower and the Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, both completed in 2010, significantly increased the Studio global profile, winning acclaim from architecture critics.[7][8]
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;[9] two boathouses on the Chicago River that opened up access to the river's edge;[10] and the transformation of a former Chicago airfield, Northerly Island, into a public lakefront park and biodiverse habitat.[11]
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 "a poetic, joyful, theatrical work of public architecture and a highly sophisticated flight of sculptural fantasy".[12][13]
The Studio employs more than 140 people as of December 2023.[14]
Notable works
Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History
The $465 million Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation opened in May 2023. The 230,000-square-foot addition includes six floors above ground, and one below. The 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.[15] The atrium's architecture is informed by natural form-making processes such as the movement of wind and water that shape geological landscapes.[16] 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.[16]
The St. Regis Chicago, formerly Wanda Vista Tower, is a 101-story, 1,198 ft (365 m) 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 at 1,198 ft (365 m), 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."[17] The tower has a notably smaller footprint than other supertalls in Chicago with a building height-to-core aspect ratio of 40-to-1.
The exterior of Studio Gang's addition to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, featuring the second floor Cultural Living Room.
The redevelopment of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) involved a comprehensive transformation of the existing building and grounds, resulting in a 133,000-square-foot 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.[18]
Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction Acknowledgement Prize North America, 2011, for the Ford Calumet Environmental Center[89]
Distinguished Building Honor Award, AIA Chicago, 2011, for the Nature Boardwalk, Education Pavilion and South Pond Transformation at Lincoln Park Zoo[90]
Most Compassionate Architectural Firm, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 2009[91]
Skyscraper of the Year Award, Emporis, 2009, for the Aqua Tower[92]
