Playing with Laminate Design
Wilsonart X Me
Hot off the press! Sharon Exley’s touting one of Architecture Is Fun’s favorite products, Wilsonart custom laminates, in full page ads found in Contract Magazine, Design: Retail, Metropolis Magazine and Hospitality Design magazine!
Frost Art Museum
The renovated family gallery is “super chill,” designed to be worthy of a child’s curiosity and adult admiration, demonstrating everyone is hard-wired for creativity. The whiteness of the space serves as a blank slate for artistic expression and media exploration, from new-age technologies, including a Smart Table™, projector and iPads, to traditional art-making. It is an environment rich in evocative objects and commissioned art installations that inspire active learning, choices, and social engagement. Both orientation and terminus, the discovery gallery is “the place” that frames museum visits.
Playmakers
The summer issue Modern Luxury Interiors Chicago (page 168) perches Sharon and Peter atop the Carson Pirie Scott Building, 12 floors above State Street. Editor Diana Tychsen Bitting nailed our story, photographer Katrina Wittkamp captured the moment and some delicious Louis Sullivan ornament and our city served as our backdrop. Cool!
Evanston Public Library: Children’s Library
Making Room for Growth
With collections exceeding capacity and unanticipated citywide increase in juvenile population, the Evanston Public Library had little room to grow. This challenging renovation reconfigured and re-envisioned the formal library, transforming it into a literary children’s garden of delights.
Roxaboxen: Building Landscapes of Learning
Alice McLerran’s story Roxaboxen, captures childhood in a way we all seem to remember. The long endless hours of play, the ability to shape your own world, and a place where imagination can take you anywhere. The evocative imagery by Barbara Cooney captures these moments exquisitely. Roxaboxen children are children everywhere.
Evanston Public Library: Teen Loft
Carving Out Room and Resource For Teens
Wow. This is the first time I’ve been in here and I love it! It’s so teenagerish. I really wish my room looked like this! You’re kidding, teens helped design this?! I didn’t know cool stuff like that went on.
~ Evanston High School Senior
Fountaindale Public Library Teen Library
Serving the Teen Aesthetic and Study Habits
The Vortex Teen Library draws young adults into a relevant, energized 3500 SF, which they helped brainstorm and name.
Let’s Be Friends