Chicago Architectural Club 2026 Burnham Prize: The Future of State

For the 2026 Burnham Prize, the Chicago Architectural Club is partnering with World Business Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Center, Chicago Loop Alliance, and the Loop Arts District in calling for visions for a reimagined State Street in the heart of Chicago’s Loop. 

For the full competition brief and materials, please visit the competition website at this link.

INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORY OF STATE STREET 

State Street has long been Chicago’s “Great Street,” serving as the city’s central corridor of commerce, culture, and civic life. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, retailers such as Marshall Field and landmark buildings by architects including Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan helped establish the street as the heart of downtown Chicago. Reinforced by the completion of the Loop Elevated Railway in 1897, State Street became synonymous with the city itself and remained its primary retail and civic destination well into the twentieth century.

Like many American downtowns, however, State Street was reshaped by suburbanization, the rise of the automobile, changing retail patterns, and broader social and economic shifts. Efforts to revive the corridor included the 1979 pedestrian transit mall and the 1996 streetscape redesign, while the Loop gradually evolved into a more mixed-use neighborhood with growing residential and educational populations.

More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of hybrid work transformed patterns of downtown activity, while events such as Sundays on State and the Arts in the Dark parade demonstrated the corridor’s continuing potential as a civic and cultural stage. Ongoing public investment, including the reconstruction of the State and Lake CTA station, alongside planning initiatives by the City, the Urban Land Institute, and the Loop Arts District Caucus, point to a renewed opportunity for reinvention.

Today, State Street stands at a critical inflection point: a historic corridor with the potential to once again become a vibrant, inclusive, and active center of everyday urban life in Chicago.

DESIGN CHALLENGE 

This competition calls for bold, future-facing proposals that reclaim State Street as Chicago’s Great Street, an active, mixed-use corridor in the heart of the Loop. The competition seeks strategies to revitalize and reimagine retail, housing, office, business, schools, culture, entertainment, and the arts, supporting a more resilient and diverse downtown. State Street should be welcoming to residents, workers, families, students, and visitors alike, capable of supporting both everyday use and citywide events. Proposals should demonstrate how design, preservation, landscape, culture, and/or community, alongside economic and policy strategies, can transform State Street from a thoroughfare into a destination that serves a broad range of needs and belongs to everyone.  

The task ahead is to reconnect State Street, and its network of historic and cultural landmarks, to the broader rhythm of the city, reinforcing its role as both a vibrant mixed-use spine and a central civic stage for Chicago. Proposals should demonstrate how sustained, year-round activity can be supported through retail revitalization, increased residential presence, adaptive reuse, evolving workplace models, and a more diverse mix of programs and businesses, integrating physical, operational, and policy strategies to strengthen economic activity and reestablish State Street as a consistently active corridor within the Loop. Submissions may focus on one or multiple topics and operate at the urban or building scale, and will be assessed on the clarity of the issues identified and the effectiveness of the proposal in addressing them through bold, future-facing visions.  

SITE 

State Street corridor from the Chicago River to Roosevelt Road.  

PROGRAM 

Program to be determined by entrants as an integral part of proposals. 

SCHEDULE  

• April 22, 2026 - Competition Announcement and Jury Introduction  
• May 6, 2026 - Workshop with Loop Arts District Caucus  
• May 15, 2026 - Early Registration Deadline  
• May 1-30, 2026 - Questions period. Email any questions to: [email protected]  
• June 15, 2026 - Competition Registration Deadline  
• July 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM CT - Competition Submission Deadline  
• August 2026 - Jury deliberations and Winners Announced  
• August - September 2026 - Publication/Exhibition prep of selected entries  
• October 17, 2026 - Public Exhibition and Arts Fest on State Street 

SUPPLIED MATERIALS 

To support this work, we have prepared a set of base materials, including a CAD plan of the corridor and key background resources. These are provided as a common framework for participants and can be accessed through the website link. 

DELIVERABLES  

Submissions are due at 5:00 PM CT on July 20, 2026. Submissions are electronic and submitted via email only. The following materials should be submitted:  

1. A single 24-inch x 36-inch poster, in portrait orientation. The poster must include the 5-digit assigned registration number in the lower right-hand corner and be submitted in PDF format. The file should be named with the 5-digit registration number, for example, “12345.pdf.”  
2. A written statement of no more than 500 words explaining your ideas. The file should be named “Statement_12345.doc.” This file must be a .txt, .doc, or .rtf file, NOT a .pdf.  
3. A single-page document with team identification and contact information. Include: Project title, names of team members, leader’s telephone number, and email address. The file should be named “ID_12345.doc.” This file must be a .txt, .doc, or .rtf file, NOT a .pdf. The source of any third-party materials incorporated in the entry must also be included; this source information may exceed one page if necessary.  

 All three files must then be saved in a single ZIP file named with the 5-digit registration number “12345.zip.” This zipped file should not exceed 10MB. The single ZIP file should be sent via email to: [email protected].  

 The email subject line should read “Registration Number_12345.” Upon announcement of the winners, higher resolution images may be requested from winning submissions and selected entries. Following jury deliberation, shortlisted entries will be contacted to coordinate materials for the subsequent exhibition. 

AWARDS  

• First Place: $3,000  
• Second Place: $2,000  
• Third Place: $1,000  
• Exhibited Projects: $100 

Selected work will be featured in a public exhibition and programming, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, and all teams whose projects are selected for exhibition will receive an honorarium for their contribution. Winning entries will be shared with project partners as part of an ongoing dialogue about the future of State Street. At the discretion of the jury, one proposal may be selected for possible implementation, pending available funding through grant applications led by the Chicago Architectural Club in collaboration with the selected team. 

 FEES & REGISTRATION  

• Early Registration Fee: $50 ($25 Students)  
• Regular Registration Fee: $75 ($50 Students)  

Please email a PDF copy of a valid current student ID for student rates. To register, follow this link. 

 JURY  

A distinguished jury of architects, planners, designers, critics, and civic leaders will guide the selection of winning proposals. The jury reflects a broad range of expertise across design, landscape, urbanism, preservation, and public leadership. Confirmed jury members include:  

• Carol Ross Barney, FAIA - Design Principal and Founder, Ross Barney Architects  
• Elizabeth Blasius - Historian, Writer, Partner, Preservation Futures  
• Phil Enquist, FAIA - University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs; Former Partner, Skidmore Owings & Merrill  
• Eleanor Esser Gorski, AIA - CEO & President, Chicago Architecture Center  
• Reed Kroloff - Dean, College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology  
• Anjulie Rao - Journalist and Critic  
• Irene Sunwoo - John H. Bryan Chair and Curator, Architecture and Design, The Art Institute of Chicago  
• Ernest C. Wong, PLA, FASLA, APA - Founding Principal, Site Design Group 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  

The Chicago Architectural Club thanks our generous sponsor, World Business Chicago, and our partners:  

• Chicago Architecture Center  
• Chicago Loop Alliance 
• Loop Arts District