CHICAGO (June 15, 2005) The Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) announces the opening of Five Architects, an exhibition that brings together five public building projects in the Midwest, designed by five architecture firms led entirely or in part by women principals: Studio Gang of Chicago, Julie Snow Architects of Minneapolis, Ross Barney + Jankowski of Chicago, SANAA of Tokyo and Zaha Hadid Architects of London.

The exhibition is organized in deliberate contrast to the celebrated 1972 book, Five Architects: Eisenman, Graves, Gwathemy, Hejduk, Meier, in which a group of young New York architects defined themselves as a single unified movement. The exhibition Five Architects, demonstrates the increasing diversity of contemporary architecture by bringing together five projects designed by firms with five notable women architects: Jeanne Gang, Julie Snow, Carol Ross Barney, Kazuyo Sejima and Zaha Hadid.

“Conventional wisdom and architectural history typically attribute a building’s design to a single gifted individual,” explains Lynn Osmond, CAF president and CEO. "A Michelangelo, for instance, a Frank Lloyd Wright, a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Five Architects offers a more inclusive view of contemporary architecture, as a diverse and collaborative endeavor.”

The exhibition showcases each distinct project—a children’s center, a transit center, a federal office building, and two arts facilities—in an arresting display of videos and other media, collaboratively designed by architect Elva Rubio of Gensler and graphic designers Studio Blue. Each project on view has its own unique form and character, resulting from the architects’ distinct backgrounds and approaches to contemporary architecture.

CAF is proud to have received funding for the exhibition from major, local and national supporters of the arts. Altria Group, Inc. is the lead corporate sponsor of the exhibition. Sara Lee Foundation is the lead foundation sponsor of the exhibition. CAF also received generous support for Five Architects from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Graham Foundation, Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Illinois Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Admission to the exhibition, Five Architects, is free and open to the public June 23 – November 20, 2005