2012 Chicago Prize Competition: FUTURE PRENTICE

The Chicago Architectural Club is pleased to announce the 2012 Chicago Prize Competition: FUTURE PRENTICE, with its partner, the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The competition is intended to act as a platform for public debate about the future of one of Chicago’s most architecturally significant Modern buildings, Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. Located in the downtown Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville, this concrete, clover leaf-shaped structure is considered an iconic piece of architecture for the city by some and an eyesore by others.

Completed in 1975, the organically-shaped form stands out in a field of rectilinear mid-rise and high-rise developments. The hospital is considered ground-breaking for its cutting-edge architecture and advanced engineering, as well as, for its progressive design approach to organizing medical wards and services. Partially occupied until fall 2011, the structure has been determined to be in sound condition, but in need of repair. Today the building is in imminent danger of being torn down by its owner, Northwestern University, but it’s fate ultimately lies in the hands of the city’s administration.

FUTURE PRENTICE is an international, single-stage ideas competition open to anyone with a vision of what the former Prentice Women’s Hospital could become: students, architects, landscape architects, planners, designers, artists and concerned citizens alike. Registration for the 2012 Chicago Prize Competition will open 20 August 2012. Submissions are due 15 October 2012. The competition brief, downloads, and additional information available at www.chicagoarchitecturalclub.org on 20 August 2012.