Anjulie Rao

Anjulie Rao is a Chicago-based journalist and Editor of Chicago Architect magazine. As a writer, she focuses on livable built environments, equitable design, architecture criticism, and radical urbanism. With an academic background in art history, she enjoys intersections between art, infrastructure, and political narratives. She completed her Masters in New Arts Journalism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014 and her bylines can be found in Chicago Architect, Metropolis, American Craft Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Artsy, Curbed Chicago, and LUXE Magazine, among others.

Texas Architect Magazine •

Dark Side: A Conversation with Aaron Seward and Anjulie Rao

The third edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial opened on September 19, 2019. Titled “…And Other Such Stories,” it was curated by Yesomi Umolu, Sepake Angiama, and Paulo Tavares. Hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center and four off-site venues, the exhibition elided the formal and technical aspects of architecture to focus on problems of equity and historical violence in the world in which architecture operates. Here, Chicago Architect Editor Anjulie Rao and Texas Architect Editor Aaron Seward discuss some of what they absorbed at the event.
Curbed •

How buying a house activated all of my anxieties

Last year I decided to engage in the truest, purest act of banal suffering: I bought a house. Buying a house isn’t one action; it’s a series of actions: frantically scraping together every penny you have, talking to strangers (real estate agents and lenders), fighting with plumbers, and filling out paperwork. It’s a process that poked at each of my anxieties, from the sharp, short-term suffering of making phone calls to the bigger question of whether I had become my own worst enemy: a gentrifie
Curbed Chicago •

A decade of regret in Chicago

The losses in Chicago’s built environment go far beyond the buildings and their architectural features. These places are symbols of greater failures: vacant lots represent a dearth of affordable housing, church-condo conversions signal the absence of community spaces, and closed schools call attention to the city’s disinvestment in its neighborhoods. This only covers a sliver of the demolitions and conversions that have occured in the past decade. These spaces are still mourned today, and as we
Chicago magazine •

Finding Peace on Chicago’s Bridges

The Loop is a great place to develop an anxiety disorder, which I did two years ago, having worked there, daily, for five years. There’s a sense of loneliness that accompanies subsisting among skyscrapers: the omnipresent emptiness of monuments to capitalism combined with the lingering panic that everyone has some place to be and, yes, we’re in each other’s way. It’s why I came up with a routine that allows me a pace more in line with my raised-in-the-forest heartbeat: I walk, slowly, across Chi
Chicago Reader •

Power, violence, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Architecture biennials are created to take the pulse of the profession, to display what architects are making, thinking about, and valuing. If a pulse is what we were looking for, I would have put the Chicago Architecture Biennial in an ambulance years ago. Past editions were missing the critical, complicated histories of segregation and redlining; the grand, hopeful construction and spectacular destruction of large-scale public housing were glossed over; the seemingly unfixable disrepair that b
Metropolis •

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019: Questioning Real Estate Values

In the run-up to the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2019, which opens on 19 September, Metropolis presents a series of previews of the themes running through the event. For exhibitors at this year’s biennial, the “art” of building is hardly innocent. From resource management to property relations, these works reveal a more complex reality. When urbanists and architects preach “the right to the city,” they mean urban spaces open to enjoyment and use by all. But framed within a market context, in
Metropolis •

In Chicago, the Luxe Boutique Notre Shakes Up the Retail Typology

The most obvious venue for retail is a box, one big and open enough to highlight changing inventory and conveniently rotate customers in and out. But Notre, a luxury clothing purveyor, had something more in mind when it sought to grow its Chicago shop: the ability to also act as a cultural hub. The solution combines sweeping renovations and more nuanced moves, and draws on the combined talents of local designers Abigail Chang, Ben Gott, and Isabelle Reford and architecture firm Norman Kelley, a
Metropolis •

Chicago Botanic Garden's New Way for Kids to Engage With Nature

At the new Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) Regenstein Learning Campus, the landscape encourages children’s sensory discovery of the natural world—minus the gaudiness of plastic playgrounds or an overprescription of experiences. In lieu of sandboxes and jungle gyms, Mikyoung Kim Design elegantly weaves a narrative of outdoor exploration that entices kids to encounter nature through imaginative free play, instilling body confidence. The space, executed by local landscape architects Jacobs/Ryan Associ
Chicago Reader •

The Beach is the interactive exhibit Navy Pier deserves

What even is Navy Pier? For many Chicagoans it's the epitome of tourist hell; like San Francisco's Pier 39 but with fewer bread bowls and more mold issues, the carnivalesque combo children's museum-Shakespeare Theater-fun house-yacht dock-pirate ship confusion has always been more a "something else that's not for us." Navy Pier saw this as a problem and, starting in 2016, undertook a $278 million dollar renovation of the lakeshore attraction, looking to improve its repellant reputation among Chi
Curbed Chicago •

7 small projects that had a big impact in 2018

Chicago was full of megadevelopments this year. It’s true that Lincoln Yards, The 78, and even Amazon got a huge chunk of the spotlight in 2018. However, there are plenty of small projects leaving a meaningful impact for neighborhoods and their residents. We thought it would be nice to honor the smaller-scale projects. So after reaching out to Chicago notables and experts, here are seven favorites in that category. “What the city needs are more public spaces. And I’m not talking about the priva

Solving civic issues locally for national change

How architects worked with children and adults to imagine better, safer communities and schools at Chicago Ideas festival. The issues of ownership and power are crucial when addressing civic problems. Residents are increasingly asking how they can be more involved in, or better stewards of, their cities and towns. While the vast majority of the American public does not identify as architects or designers, do they have tools to make our communities safer and better-prepared to address critical c
Luxe Interiors + Design •

A Modern Riverside Build Serves As A Serene Oasis

uilding a home in an urban area rarely offers opportunities for seclusion. But for one couple looking for an escape from the bustle of Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s F.A.T. Village arts neighborhood, architect Max Strang was able to design just that: a modern and comfortable sanctuary that celebrates its private site. Homeowners Elliot and Ileen Gross sought solitude and natural beauty when they purchased the original 100-year-old house on the property located at the end of a quiet street on the Ne
Luxe Interiors + Design •

Textures And Ample Light Define A Refined North Shore Home

fter many years in Lincoln Park, Illinois, a family of four decided it was time for more space in a move to the North Shore. Upon finding the perfect property to start anew, they sought the expertise of designer Jenna Wedemeyer, architect Mandy Brown, builder John Dragic and landscape architect Dave Heller. When the clients first approached Wedemeyer, they knew exactly what they didn’t want. “I showed her decor of our Chicago home and pointed out what I didn’t like,” the wife recalls. The discus
Chicago magazine •

These Were Chicago’s Best New Buildings/Developments of 2017

In a city known for its contributions to architecture and design, 2017 was no exception. And, if the dozens of tower cranes still seen throughout the city’s skyline this winter are a sign of anything, there’s plenty more to come—including a number of high-rise projects from star architects. But which of this year’s new buildings were the very best? We enlisted local experts to make their picks. Panelists include AIA Chicago Communications Director and editor of Chicago Architect magazine (and
Chicago magazine •

Q&A: Yesomi Umolu, Artistic Director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial

Yesomi Umolu, exhibitions curator at the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, was recently named artistic director of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Her own history is as global at the biennial itself: born in Lagos, Nigeria, raised in London, with a deep resume that incorporates curatorial and educational experiences at museums and galleries all over the United States and Great Britain. She’s hit the ground running on the CAB, planning for the third CAB that promises
Chicago magazine •

The Key to Virgil Abloh’s Cool? Architecture.

At times, it seems like everything fashion designer Virgil Abloh touches turns to cool. Not just contemporarily en vogue, but a cool that channels decades of historic cools. Take the Rockford native’s 2017 collaboration with Nike, “Ten Icons Reconstructed”: a line of vintage sneaker designs in clean white, embellished with red zip-ties and self-referential lettering—"shoelaces,” “air," "vulcanized,” “foam.”
Chicago magazine •

Chicagoans of the Year 2017: The River Queen

Think of downtown’s River Theater as a grand urban gesture. The complex geometry of steps, seating, and ramp overlooking the Chicago River pours down effortlessly from Upper Wacker and sings with energy, serving as a middle finger to the A Sunday on La Grande Jatte–type formality of other riverside parks. Carol Ross Barney is the architect behind it and the rest of the 15-years-in-the-making Chicago Riverwalk, which has transformed the city’s main waterway into a dynamic public amenity. You nee
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