Future Agency was based in 2015 by Ann Lui and Craig Reschke. From their workplace within the Chicago Loop, their workforce of 9 has launched into myriad civic, residential, neighborhood, and adaptive reuse tasks. In addition they maintain one foot in academia: Lui is an assistant professor of observe 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 individuals 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 observe collectively that serves private and non-private shoppers, however with an emphasis on the town of Chicago at giant. “A variety of our tasks are exhausting to signify in a portfolio, particularly the in depth analysis we do,” Lui instructed AN. “Generally we work with small enterprise homeowners in Uptown, which is dwelling to a big Asian American neighborhood. Different occasions we’re within the South Facet, determining methods to infill vacant heaps.”
A part of Future Agency’s differentiating issue is financial: Whereas different workplaces sometimes kick issues off as soon as a price range has been put aside, Lui and Reschke typically assist their shoppers increase cash by way of grant writing. Previously few months, Future Agency has gained virtually $18 million in seed assist from private and non-private businesses for small-business homeowners. “We attempt to enter all the pieces with an entrepreneurial mindset,” Reschke stated.
Hem Home, 2021
At the moment, there are greater than 10,000 vacant heaps unfold all through Chicago’s South and West Sides, a conundrum that planners name “the lacking enamel drawback”—an incongruous concern for a
metropolis with a severe housing disaster. Many years of soil air pollution from lead publicity makes building on many empty heaps prohibitively costly, and plenty of have basements stuffed with particles—a tactic for fast and soiled demolitions within the Nineteen Eighties.
Future Agency’s Hem Home (beforehand featured in AN Inside) presents an revolutionary case research for these heaps. The 2-bedroom dwelling was accomplished in East Garfield Park, the place the soil was contaminated. With the intention to circumnavigate this, Future Agency designed a house and not using a basement: Hem Home sits on a concrete slab set again from the road that also permits for a small backyard. The mannequin is well replicable and might be seen as a precedent for flipping different vacant heaps.
Justice of the Pies, 2023
In Chicago’s Avalon Park neighborhood, Future Agency lately remodeled 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 business bakery, exhibition kitchen, outside seating, workplaces, storage, and convention rooms.
Past its engaging aesthetics, Justice of the Pies has a powerful 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. Because of Future Agency’s renovation in Avalon Park, Justice of the Pies has a surprising everlasting dwelling the place it might probably 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 shade. At the moment, 37 % of Black Chicagoans from age 20 to 24 are unemployed. To assist remedy 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 the moment, Revolution Workshop is a thriving group and desires 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 area. 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 constructions will create a particular flagship location for Revolution Workshop.
POP! South Facet Sanctuary, 2023—
POP! South Facet 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 Facet.
South Facet Sanctuary hasn’t been constructed but. Its sponsors, which embody a wide selection of nonprofits, are nonetheless working with Future Agency to boost capital for the park. However upon completion, the mission will rework the lot right into a vibrant neighborhood area 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 workforce consists of Future Agency; Jim Mjenzi, proprietor of Nation Motion Builders; and Tynneal Grant of OTBS Design, amongst different vital contributors.
