Studio

Our shared values are the foundation of our design approach. Knowledge, creativity, honesty, and a strong sense of responsibility to each other, our community, and the environment shape our work and our Studio culture.

We believe unequivocally that Black lives matter and stand with those taking action against systemic racial injustice. We believe that as architects, we have a critical role to play in creating places and processes that foster equality and justice and that empower historically marginalized communities.

In solidarity with other designers working to envision and realize a just future, we are a signatory of the Design Justice Demands of the Design As Protest (DAP) Collective, an anti-racist, non-hierarchical, action-based collection of BIPOC designers dedicated to advancing design justice in the built environment. We encourage you to sign on, as well, and to make use of their Anti-Racist Design Justice Index and other resources and tools for guiding concrete action on these issues.

As architects dedicated to healthy and livable communities, and guided by scientific consensus and reason, we combat climate change through design and advocacy. We invite you to join us as a signatory of Architects Advocate and a signatory and Working Group member of US Architects Declare, a network of architects organizing for radical change in the building sector around climate, social justice, and biodiversity.

We are also a signatory of 1.5oC COP26 Communiqué issued by Architecture 2030, which calls on sovereign government leaders participating in the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to match our commitment to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5oC carbon budget.

The Studio’s four offices regularly come together at Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, Wisconsin for our summer retreat, where we spend time exploring the lake and woodland, learning about the region’s ecology, meeting new and old colleagues, and sleeping under the stars.

Studio members actively participate in civic life, from organizing voter registration drives to supporting community groups through pro bono design services to advocating for equitable development in our cities. We volunteer annually with Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program in Chicago to construct affordable homes for women-led families.

We coordinate regular tours through each of our offices, sharing our design process, Studio culture, and history with a wide range of people from design students and community groups to clients and collaborators.

We participate in a range of programs that introduce young people to design, including the ACE Mentor Program, NAACP’s ACT-SO Achievement Program, the Chicago Architecture Center’s Teen Fellows Program, and Youth Design Leadership—a mentorship and outreach program that we developed to empower marginalized youth, giving them a seat at the table to help steer design.

We track the health, growth, and biodiversity of our Chicago office’s rooftop ecosystem through an annual “bioblitz”—a citizen science event that brings neighbors, architects, and scientists together to catalog its species, share insights and expertise, and encourage ecological stewardship across projects, scales, and disciplines.

The Gallery is a flexible, public-facing space in Studio Gang’s Chicago office, which supports creativity and connection in many forms. It opens onto the Visible Archive, where the Studio’s diverse collection of design records is conserved and displayed. The two spaces function as resources for the Studio, as well as visiting guests, researchers, and the wider community.

We encourage and support field trips in each of our offices, recognizing their capacity to deepen our affinity for the cities and regions we live in, and expand our knowledge about important environmental and social issues. We also organize regular trips to Studio projects that are completed or under construction.

We enthusiastically support cycling in many ways: through annual bike-commuter challenges, end-of-trip facilities, bike-share discounts, and repair workshops led by local, independent mechanics. Studio members are also active in nonprofits that promote the expansion of safe, connected, and accessible bike infrastructure.

The rooftop of our Chicago office is a flexible indoor-outdoor space for hosting Studio gatherings and community events from the annual AIA LGBTQIA+ Spring Social to lectures and performances with visiting architects, thinkers, and cultural practitioners.