2021 Chicago Prize: James R. Thompson Center - Jury

2021 Chicago Prize, Jury Members

Carol Ross Barney

Michelle T. Boone

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, HASLA, has been in the vanguard of civic space design since founding Ross Barney Architects in 1981. With a career that spans over 40 years, Carol has made significant contributions to the built environment, the profession, and architectural education. As an architect, urbanist, mentor, and educator, she has relentlessly advocated that excellent design is a right, not a privilege. Her body of work occupies a unique place within the panorama of contemporary architecture, being composed of work in the public realm.

Michelle T. Boone is President of The Poetry Foundation based in Chicago, Illinois.

Appointed in May 2021, she is the first woman and first African American to lead the organization. The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in American culture.

Founder and Design Principal, Ross Barney Architects, FAIA, HASLA

Ross Barney’s projects vary in type and scale, but uphold a deep commitment to the role architecture plays in life quality. This has manifest itself in design of spaces that enrich the metropolitan experience; to buildings that are environmental stewards, showcasing sustainability in an overtly compelling way; to spaces that inspire young children and the brightest minds of tomorrow to learn, invent, and break boundaries.

Carol’s work has been honored with over 200 major design awards, including twelve national American Institute of Architects Institute Honor Awards for Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design, over 40 AIA Chicago Awards, two AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten Project Awards, and the AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award, the AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture and the AIA Illinois Gold Medal, all for a distinguished body of work.

2021 Chicago Prize

President, The Poetry Foundation

Previously, Boone was the Chief Program and Civic Engagement Officer at Navy Pier, an historic landmark and top cultural destination and attraction in the Midwest. In this role, Boone designed, developed, curated and presented Navy Pier’s arts and culture public programs, festivals and specials events, and was a member of the executive leadership team helping to shape organizational strategy and public engagement.

In 2011, Michelle was appointed Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. During her tenure, she led a team of more than 80 full-time employees to produce and present more than 2,000 public programs, large-scale festivals and special events annually; supervised the management of the historic Chicago Cultural Center; led the process for a new Chicago Cultural Plan (released in 2012); and launched the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, the city’s first international exhibition of contemporary architecture and design.

2021 Chicago Prize, Jury Members

Philip Castillo

Peter D. Cook

Philip Castillo, FAIA, is an architect and Executive Vice President at JAHN, an international architectural firm with over 75 years of experience that has achieved critical recognition and won numerous awards. JAHN’s ability to integrate design creativity and corporate professionalism makes it a leading firm in global design Innovation. The firm has completed buildings on four continents encompassing a wide range of typologies and scales. JAHN’s commitment to design excellence and the improvement of the urban environment has been acknowledged worldwide. The firms projects are led from our office in Chicago along with support from the Berlin office.

Peter D. Cook is an architect based in Washington, D.C., where he is currently a design principal at HGA Architects & Engineers His previous work as an associate partner and design principal with Davis Brody Bond includes many prominent institutional projects in Washington, including the collaboration with Adjaye Associates, the Freelon Group, and SmithGroup for the design of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, as well as the Watha T. Daniel / Shaw Neighborhood Library, the East Gateway Pavilion at the St. Elizabeths campus and the renovation of the South African Embassy. His current work includes such project as the new D.C. Lamond-Riggs Neighborhood Library, Northern Virginia Science Center, and the Contemplative Site at Monticello in Charlottesville.

Executive Vice President, JAHN, FAIA

JAHN has a proven track record in the form of numerous built projects, where landmark architecture is successfully, if not spectacularly, incorporated within the framework of program, budget and schedule. The ability of JAHN to produce significant architectural statements on a consistent basis are given credence by the firm’s stature in the architectural and public press.

Castillo joined JAHN in 1979 and has worked closely with Helmut Jahn. Notable projects while with JAHN include Restaon Station. 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, Tokyo Station, Highlight Towers, Shanghai New International Expo Centre and Sony Center.

2021 Chicago Prize

Design Principal, HGA Architects & Engineers, AIA, NOMA

Cook is a member of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the National Organization of Minority Architects. His professional experience includes work as a designer with Skidmore Owings & Merrill, Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Gensler. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He serves on the board of the Washington Architectural Foundation and as a Peer on the GSA’s Design Excellence Program. He served previously as the President of DCNOMA, Regional Vice President of NOMA as well as on the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. In June of 2021, Peter was appointed to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

2021 Chicago Prize, Jury Members

Thomas Heatherwick

Mikyoung Kim

Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer whose prolific and varied work over two decades is characterised by its ingenuity, inventiveness and originality.

Mikyoung Kim, Founding Principal of Mikjoung Kim Design, is an award-winning international designer who brings innovative ideas to the urban landscape. She is known for culturally significant designs that serve as a powerful tool to celebrate the beauty of the collective human experience. Mikyoung’s diverse background in design and sculpture has shaped her body of work, blurring the boundaries between landscape architecture and environmental art.

From children’s playgrounds to city parks and urban master plans, her work reflects a deep commitment to memorable place making that captures the public imagination. Her landscapes bring a richly layered civic experience to the public realm that engages the senses for a multigenerational audience.

Founder and Design Director, Heatherwick Studio

Defying the conventional classification of design disciplines, Thomas founded Heatherwick Studio in 1994 to bring the practices of design, architecture and urban planning together in a single workspace.

Thomas leads the design of all Heatherwick Studio projects, working in collaboration with a team of highly-skilled architects, designers, and makers. Thomas’ unusual approach applies artistic thinking to the needs of each project, resulting in some of the most acclaimed designs of our time.

Based in London, Heatherwick Studio is currently working on approximately 30 projects in ten countries. Following the Gold Award success of the UK Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, Heatherwick Studio has gone on to win exciting design briefs including 1000 Trees, a mixed-use development in Shanghai; and new headquarters for Google in Silicon Valley and London (in collaboration with BIG, currently under construction).

The studio has recently completed Little Island, a park and performance space on the Hudson River and Vessel, a new public centrepiece for Hudson Yards, both in New York; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, the first museum of its kind on the continent; and Coal Drops Yard, a major new retail district in King’s Cross, London.

2021 Chicago Prize

Founding Principal, Mikjoung Kim Design

As the founder and design director of Mikyoung Kim Design, she has crafted an exceptional body of work that has been highlighted in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, Dwell, Surface, Garden Design, and the Chicago Tribune. Mikyoung was named an AD innovator by Architectural Digest and recently received the ASLA National Design Medal. She is a fellow with the American Society of Landscape Architects and a recipient of the prestigious BSA’s Women in Design Award. Her work is featured in the Smithsonian Museum “American Voices” Collection.

A frequent international speaker, Mikyoung has lectured at academic institutions, professional organizations, botanic gardens, museums, and art institutes. She has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and is a Professor Emerita at the Rhode Island School of Design.

2021 Chicago Prize, Jury Members

Bonnie McDonald

President & CEO, Landmarks Illinois Bonnie McDonald aspires to shape preservation into a more relevant and just practice.

As President and CEO of Landmarks Illinois, Bonnie advances the vision, mission and programs of Illinois’ only statewide preservation nonprofit organization. Her transformative thinking about preservation has led Landmarks Illinois to focus its work on people and their important connection to historic places. She’s currently spearheading the organization’s evolution at its 50-year anniversary to enhance its relevancy and to create a national model for justice, equity, inclusion and diversity in preservation practice.

Bonnie is a collaborative leader and together with her board, team and volunteers, they’ve nearly doubled Landmarks Illinois’ staff, opened its first regional office, passed vital state legislation and played a visible role as thought leaders during her eight years as president. In November 2018, Bonnie was elected board chair of the National Preservation Partners Network, the national nonprofit representing preservation organizations, and is proud to have been awarded the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation MidCareer Fellowship in 2020. In August 2020, she was appointed as a co-chair of the City of Chicago’s Monuments and Memorials Committee reckoning with the city’s problematic artworks. Bonnie received a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Minnesota and a Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University.

2021 Chicago Prize