2017 Burnham Prize Competition: Under the Dome

In response to this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial prompting Make New History, the Chicago Architectural Club is pleased to announce the 2017 Burnham Prize Competition: Under the Dome. New History is made not from a position of sentimentality toward style, but rather it must be critical of our past and used to inform architecture that is responsive to both its context and future inhabitants. This competition uses the historical and typological construct of the dome and calls for its critical re-imagination in the context of Make New History.

Historically, domes have functioned to represent society’s unifying aspirations and environments through their distinct form. The Pantheon served as a gathering space to worship Roman Gods. Domed planetariums simulate the heavens above. Buckminster Fuller’s domes inspired a wave of interest in architecturally enclosed environments. Niemeyer’s domes seek to encourage democratic delegation in political infrastructures. Throughout time, domes have not only evolved and expanded their program, but also their structural tectonic. This unique form has remained relevant over centuries, having been made of concrete, stone, wood, metal, and inflatables. No matter the program or material structure, domes are experiential spaces that inspire emotion by creating radial space both horizontally and vertically through a singular volume.

This year the Chicago Cultural Center will perform as the main venue for the second edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. The Center—formerly a Public Library– was designed by Shepley Rutan and Coolidge in 1897. Inside the building, the acclaimed Tiffany Dome was recently restored and brings in millions of visitors a year to not only admire the beautiful structure, but also participate in the many programs held under the dome.

In contrast to the Tiffany dome, less than 10 miles away stands the decaying dome of St. Stephen’s Church, designed by the successor Firm of Coolidge & Hodgdon. This year marks the centennial anniversary of the church’s domed cathedral. After its first 80 years serving as the Tenth Church of Christ Scientist and then as St. Stephen’s Church, the building and it’s dome have been abandoned for the last twenty years. This year’s Burnham Prize competition questions whether St. Stephen’s dome can offer a new history by creatively re-thinking the dome’s contemporaneous state of ruin and dis-use.

CHARGE
On the centennial birthdate of St. Stephen’s Church, the Chicago Architecture Club is seeking proposals for “Under the Dome.” The decaying dome of St. Stephen’s Church is taken as an opportunity to revisit more broadly the dome’s place in contemporary society and fable its future history. We are calling for speculative proposals and architectural interventions that re-charge the significance and relevance of the dome. Would new strategies of programming or tectonic experimentation provide a new future for the dome? How can the collision of history and new use create the radical emergence of the unimaginable?