The fifth exhibition venue for the sixth Chicago Architecture Biennial will be an abandoned retail space ni Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.
Robert Chase Heishman
The Chicago Architecture Biennial exhibition opened in September with SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, its sixth edition. Since 2015, the biannual festival of architecture has spread across Chicago, bringing architecture and design to the public in a variety of venues open to all and with admission that is always free.
In its never-ending search for new places to meet people where they live, work, and play, CAB will open a second exhibition this fall in 65,000 Square Feet of retail space at 840 N. Michigan Avenue, on the famous Magnificent Mile shopping corridor. The unique venue, which had been home to an H&M department store, is presented in partnership with Acadia Realty Trust and Parkside Realty.
804 N. Michigan is located directly across from the John Hancock Building and Fourth Presbyterian Church near Chicago’s Water Tower monument, at one of the city’s most recognizable intersections. It is also a shopping district that can hopefully attract foot traffic for even more normal people to attend.
Spread across four floors of the retail buildings, the site will feature more than 30 installations from over 35 participating artists and studios. The main focus of the site will be “Ecologies,” which “explores how architecture exists within the interconnected systems that shape our world—climate, technology, food, and the human body. The exhibition expands the Biennial’s inquiry into how design both depends on and influences the broader ecologies that sustain and challenge us,” according to CAB Artistic Director Florencia Rodriguez. The disused big box retail venue will also have some more general projects under the “Shift” theme, or “capsule” as the CAB team calls it.
Ecology in the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Hosting an ecology-focused project in a vacant retail space will highlight the ongoing nature of change in the city and how we manage our ecologies both natural and cultural.
“This partnership shows the power of adaptive reuse to reimagine Chicago’s commercial and urban spaces,” said Phil Clement, President & CEO, World Business Chicago. “Transforming a high-profile retail site into a hub for creativity and connection demonstrates how cross-sector collaboration can spark new energy, unlock opportunity, and inspire Chicagoans to see what’s possible when we think differently about our city’s future.”
Chicago Architecture Biennial Participants
Shift Capsule Participants
322A
Alfredo Thiermann with Pedro Correa, Ella Neumaier, and Xavier Nueno
alsar-atelier
Bair Balliet
Besler & Sons
Christopher Hawthorne
gt2P
Johnston Marklee
LAMA.SP
Luftwerk
Stewart Hicks
Tonika Johnson / Amanda Williams
Ecologies Capsule Participants
C+ arquitectas
CLUAA
Estudio Flume
Estudio Planta
Ibañez Kim
Ivan Lopez Munuera and TAKK
Juan Du
La Cabina de la Curiosidad
Laboratory of Intersectional Ecologies
LIGA, Space for Architecture + Blanco, Estudio Jochamowitz Rivera and Ghezzi Novak
Natura Futura
Oshinowo Studio
Parsons & Charlesworth
Rozana Montiel
STOSS Landscape Urbanism + MPdL Studio with Mark Lamster
Studio Urbane Strategien
Sungjang
The Bittertang Farm
UNA/UNLESSWorofila
The Chicago Architecture Biennial exhibitions at 840 N. Michigan will open to the public on Saturday, November 7 and will remain on view until January 31, 2026. Public hours are Wednesday–Sunday, 12:00–6:00 p.m., with extended evening hours on Thursdays until 8:00 p.m. Other venues include the Chicago Cultural Center, the Graham Foundation, the Stony Island Arts Bank, and a site-specific installation at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. A full calendar of Biennial exhibitions and events can be found here.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattshaw/2025/10/14/chicago-architecture-biennial-launches-second-exhibition-in-former-hm/
