Visionary architect Jeanne Gang is the founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects, a rising international practice based in Chicago whose work confronts pressing contemporary issues. Driven by curiosity, intelligence, and radical creativity, Jeanne has produced some of today’s most innovative and award-winning architecture. The transformative potential of her work is exemplified by such recent projects as the Aqua Tower (named the 2009 Emporis Skyscraper of the Year), Northerly Island framework plan, Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo, and Columbia College Chicago’s Media Production Center.

Jeanne seeks to answer questions that lie locally (site, culture, people) and resound globally (density, climate, sustainability) through her architecture. She roots her designs in compelling ideas rather than repetitive formal principles, and often arrives at design solutions through cross-field investigations in materials, technology, and the natural and social sciences. Published and exhibited widely, Jeanne also continues to teach at a variety of institutions. Since 1999 she has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology. As her rapidly growing practice approaches its fourteenth year, Jeanne continues to pursue creating architecture that (as New Yorker critic Paul Goldberger described Aqua) “reclaims the notion that thrilling and beautiful form can emerge out of the realm of the practical.”