CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE BIENNIAL TOUR
The Chicago Architecture Biennial convenes the world to explore innovative ideas and collectively imagine the future of design. The Biennial’s large-scale exhibitions create opportunities to engage timely global issues through the lens of architecture and design. The current edition, SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, presents over 100 projects by architects, artists, and designers from 30 countries that address urgent questions impacting the spaces we inhabit and demonstrate architecture’s role in shaping our collective future.
Join us on a tour of the Biennial's galleries at the Chicago Cultural Center. Visitors will find a general introduction to SHIFT, as well as two of the Biennial’s central capsules: Inhabit, Outhabit, a survey of more than 30 collective housing projects - from refugee camps to experimental urban developments - and The Ordinary-EXTRA, which showcases projects that use imagination, layering, and texture to uncover beauty and meaning in everyday spaces.
Sarah Herda, Chicago Architecture Biennial Co-Chair and Director of the Graham Foundation (see bio below) will lead the curated tour. And, it will be co-lead by our own grad alum Susan Conger-Austin *83 S*82 (see bio below)
Event Details
Chicago, IL 60602
Sarah Herda is the director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation is the oldest foundation in the United States committed to awarding project-based grants to individuals and institutions to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Herda is credited with transforming the Foundation’s headquarters, the historic Madlener House, into a significant exhibition space, with an active program of talks, performances and other events that explore the forefront of architecture, art and design. She served as the co-artistic director of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015. Herda was also director and curator of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City and the director of the Center for Critical Architecture/Art and Architecture Exhibition Space in San Francisco. She serves on the Illinois Arts Council, for which she was appointed by Governor JB Pritzker and the Architecture and Design Committee at the Art Institute of Chicago. Herda is also a founding board member of the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Association of Architecture Organizations.
Susan Conger-Austin is both an educator and practicing architect. She is a principal and founder of S. Conger Architects LLC, where she has worked on institutional, commercial and residential projects. As a Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Susan has spent more than thirty years inspiring new generations of architects to think critically and collaborate globally. In the fall of 2025, she was asked to teach at Yale University in the Master of Architecture Program and is currently teaching an advanced design studio and seminar at IIT. Susan has collaborated with numerous universities and faculty throughout the world in various educational workshops, seminars and exchanges. As a Fulbright Specialist Scholar, Susan taught in Chile and Spain. As a result, she has been an invited participant to international design workshops in Santiago, Chile for many years, and delivered a series of lectures at the Escola da Cidade, Sao Paulo, Brazil, focused on urban intervention projects within the United States. Susan Conger-Austin is a current Trustee for AIA Chicago Foundation and over many years, has served on numerous Princeton Alumni Committees. Susan received her undergraduate degree in Economics and Art History from Stanford University prior to obtaining her Masters of Architecture at Princeton.
