Chicago Riverwalk designer Carol Ross Barney to receive AIA Chicago's 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award

The AIA Chicago Board of Directors bestowed their 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award to architect Carol Ross Barney, who will be presented with the award during Chicago's Designight 2017 on October 13. 

With a career spanning over 40 years, Barney — who is regarded as “the People's Architect” — has dedicated her practice to civic space design since she founded Ross Barney Architects in 1981. Some of her notable projects around Chicago include the infamous Chicago Riverwalk, the Bloomingdale / 606 Trail Master Plan, the CTA Cermak-McCormick Place and Morgan Street Stations, the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation, and numerous school buildings in the city and across the U.S.

 “Carol is known as ‘the People’s Architect’ because her significant contributions to the built environment have a profound daily impact on the way Chicagoans experience and interact with our city through accessible, engaging civic architecture, infrastructure and public realm design excellence,” says Matthew Dumich, president of AIA Chicago’s Board of Directors. The Board also commended Barney for her contributions to the industry and architectural education.

Previous Lifetime Achievement recipients include Stanley Tigerman, Helmut Jahn, Gertrude Lempp Kerbis, and Natalie De Blois, among others.