We craft interiors, architecture and create/curate designed objects like art and furniture because they are interdependent parts of the whole. makeArchitecture Co is an Illinois-licensed professional corporation based in Chicago, Illinois, and can be reached via email here. We are a member of the Association of Licensed Architects and on the steering committee to Elevate Devon Avenue. We are on the committee to restore and elevate a 1960 vintage Mies residential highrise in Chicago. In fact, we just redesigned the iconic corner building’s parkway landscape.
makeArchitecture specializes in aligning existing commercial, institutional and residential properties to today’s realities and lifestyles. For instance, we encourage our clients to convert to solar and go all-electric with heat pumps for heating water and also heating and cooling.
We also love to design new, ground-up residential, institutional and commercial construction that are naturally lit, highly insulated and use a fraction of the energy as the buildings of the 20th century. This saves money in the long and helps in the effort to stave off the worst of temperature increases associated with man-made climate change. The highlighted projects showcase our collaborative approach, our pursuit of excellence and our method-based design process. We believe in resilience. What does that mean? We make the most of everything–budget, materials and energy. We use passive lighting and heating techniques to make more liveable places.
Our Process and Services
Why hire an architect?
We can help you express and visualize what you have been dreaming about. I tell my students in the foundation studio at UVa that architects share the unique skill set of the protaganist in Italo Calvino’s Mr. Palomar We are trained to vanquish the noise and reveal what is essential, seeing the world anew and expressing its possibilities in a compelling and beautiful way.
There are 4 basic steps:
1) I pose questions to my clients like “How do I want to live?” or “How does my space align with my needs or my brand expression?” or “How do we design for the challenges of the Anthropocene?” “How do we lower the carbon footprint by reusing and restoring as much of the existing building as we can?” “How do we shift our heating and cooling to renewably sources?” “How do we not break the bank when accomplishing our goals?”
2) Listen to you and yours answers
3) Draw, model and help you figure out your story clearly and simply
4) Make your story Architecture
5) Build it with excellent contractors
Why hire us?
Because our work is classic and timeless, and– when you work with us–your project will be amazing. And we try not to suck. Seriously.
Simple.
