Speakers:

• Carol Ross Barney

  

  Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, HASLA, the 2023 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal recipient, is an architect, urbanist, mentor, and educator, and has relentlessly advocated that excellent design is a right, not a privilege. Dedicated to design of public spaces, her exploration into the power of how the built environment can improve our daily lives has produced distinctive structures and places that have become cultural icons.

  Notable projects include design of the new Oklahoma City Federal Building replacing the bombed Murrah Federal Building for the GSA; Chicago Riverwalk; McDonald’s Chicago and Disney World Flagship Restaurants; Searle Visitor Center at the Lincoln Park Zoo; JRC Synagogue; CTA Cermak and Morgan Street Stations; UMD Civil Engineering Building; Multi-Modal Terminal at O’Hare International Airport; NASA Aerospace Communications Facility; Railyard Park in Rogers, AR; and Chicago’s new DuSable Park.

  Honors include over 200 major design awards, including the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Award; fourteen National AIA Honor Awards for Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design; two AIA Committee on the Environment, Top Ten Project Awards for sustainably designed buildings; and over 45 AIA Chicago Awards. Carol is a graduate of the University of Illinois and served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica planning national parks. She has taught an advanced Design Studio at the Illinois Institute of Technology for over thirty years.

• Ryan Culligan

  

  Ryan Culligan embraces an empirical approach to design, rooted in collaboration, interdisciplinary applied research and careful consideration of place, context, history and climate. His project work is expressive, driven by conceptual clarity and inspired by the natural world. He specializes in healthy, ecologically sensitive, large-scale mixed-use projects in the United States and around the world. Ryan’s projects include a 20 million sq ft development in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand—the country’s first project to target LEED Neighborhood Development Platinum. One Bangkok utilizes sustainable engineering systems tailored to the local climate and establishes a vertical village designed to foster community wellbeing in a dense urban environment. For the two new concourses at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Ryan has developed a design concept around health, wellness and bringing nature inside to improve the passenger experience. At 400 Lake Shore Drive, a pair of towers located where the Chicago River meets Lake Michigan, Ryan drew inspiration from the site and the city’s rich architectural history to incorporate a cascading facade reminiscent of the surrounding waters, and a series of bay windows with floor-to-ceiling glass that reinterpret the iconic “Chicago window.”

• Juan Moreno

  

  Born in Bogota, Colombia, Juan Gabriel Moreno, AIA, is an award-winning architect and the President/Founder of JGMA (Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects). With over 30 years of experience, he has crafted an extensive portfolio of provocative works, including a variety of public and private projects both in the United States and internationally. In 2010, he launched JGMA to transform Chicago’s diverse communities through architecture. Since then, JGMA has become one of the most highly acclaimed design firms in the city.

  Mr. Moreno is also deeply committed to civic engagement and the city of Chicago. He has served as a commissioner on the Commission on Chicago Landmarks and has contributed to the development of Design Excellence Standards in Chicago. Additionally, he was an inaugural member of the Chicago Committee on Design, highlighting his dedication to the city's architectural landscape