Future Agency was based in 2015 by Ann Lui and Craig Reschke. From their workplace within the Chicago Loop, their staff of 9 has launched into myriad civic, residential, neighborhood, and adaptive reuse tasks. Additionally they hold one foot in academia: Lui is an assistant professor of follow on the College of Michigan, and Lui and Reschke have collectively contributed to the Chicago Structure Biennial, Exhibit Columbus, and publications like MAS Context. The studio’s thought management persists previous constructed work: For instance, Future Agency has proposed the Workplace of the Public Architect—a imaginative and prescient the place the town would supply free of charge architectural providers to folks issued constructing violations who could not in any other case have the ability to afford it.
Beforehand, Lui and Reschke labored for SOM’s Chicago workplace. After setting off on their very own, the pair sought to construct a follow collectively that serves private and non-private purchasers, however with an emphasis on the town of Chicago at giant. “A variety of our tasks are onerous to characterize in a portfolio, particularly the in depth analysis we do,” Lui advised AN. “Generally we work with small enterprise homeowners in Uptown, which is house to a big Asian American neighborhood. Different occasions we’re within the South Aspect, determining methods to infill vacant tons.”
A part of Future Agency’s differentiating issue is financial: Whereas different places of work usually kick issues off as soon as a finances has been put aside, Lui and Reschke typically assist their purchasers elevate cash by way of grant writing. Previously few months, Future Agency has received nearly $18 million in seed help from private and non-private companies for small-business homeowners. “We attempt to enter the whole lot with an entrepreneurial mindset,” Reschke mentioned.
Hem Home, 2021
At this time, there are greater than 10,000 vacant tons unfold all through Chicago’s South and West Sides, a conundrum that planners name “the lacking tooth drawback”—an incongruous problem for a
metropolis with a severe housing disaster. Many years of soil air pollution from lead publicity makes building on many empty tons prohibitively costly, and plenty of have basements stuffed with particles—a tactic for fast and soiled demolitions within the Eighties.
Future Agency’s Hem Home (beforehand featured in AN Inside) presents an modern case examine for these tons. The 2-bedroom house was accomplished in East Garfield Park, the place the soil was contaminated. With a view to circumnavigate this, Future Agency designed a house with out a basement: Hem Home sits on a concrete slab set again from the road that also permits for a small backyard. The mannequin is definitely replicable and may be seen as a precedent for flipping different vacant tons.
Justice of the Pies, 2023
In Chicago’s Avalon Park neighborhood, Future Agency not too long ago reworked a former dentist’s workplace into Justice of the Pies, an elegant bakery for star chef Maya-Camille Broussard. (Readers could acknowledge Broussard from her look on Bake Squad, a Netflix manufacturing.) Justice of the Pies is sited in a 3,500-square-foot midcentury constructing. Collectively, they crammed the constructing with a industrial bakery, exhibition kitchen, out of doors seating, places of work, storage, and convention rooms.
Past its enticing aesthetics, Justice of the Pies has a robust social mission. The bakery is devoted to Broussard’s father, Stephen, a neighborhood chief and criminal-defense lawyer. As a part of its social mission, Justice of the Pies hosts an annual “Pie Drive,” which raises cash for Cabrini Inexperienced Authorized Support. Due to Future Agency’s renovation in Avalon Park, Justice of the Pies has a surprising everlasting house the place it will possibly proceed to serve Chicagoans.
Revolution Workshop, 2022—
When Revolution Workshop was based in 2017, it had a easy mission: to assist shut the staggering unemployment hole in Chicago’s communities of coloration. At this time, 37 % of Black Chicagoans from age 20 to 24 are unemployed. To assist clear up this drawback, a small group of leaders within the AEC business got here collectively over the shared mission to attach unemployed Chicagoans with building jobs. Shortly after, Revolution Workshop purchased a 7,000-square-foot constructing in Garfield Park to accommodate its operations.
At this time, Revolution Workshop is a thriving group and wishes more room. In 2023, the nonprofit tapped Future Agency to adaptively reuse a 5,000-square-foot constructing subsequent to its present location into classroom and workplace house. The constructing Future Agency was requested to work with is a particular industrial construction outlined by its long-span bow trusses. Upon completion, the mixed buildings will create a particular flagship location for Revolution Workshop.
POP! South Aspect Sanctuary, 2023—
POP! South Aspect Sanctuary is an ongoing effort by Future Agency to create a park on a vacant lot in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, an underserved space on the South Aspect.
South Aspect Sanctuary hasn’t been constructed but. Its sponsors, which embody a big selection of nonprofits, are nonetheless working with Future Agency to lift capital for the park. However upon completion, the venture will remodel the lot right into a vibrant neighborhood house that may accommodate guests year-round and stay absolutely accessible for myriad makes use of. Cecilia Cuff, CEO of the Nascent Group, and Jasmine Anwuli Michaels, govt director of OASES. The design and building staff consists of Future Agency; Jim Mjenzi, proprietor of Nation Motion Builders; and Tynneal Grant of OTBS Design, amongst different essential contributors.