Courtesy Chicago Architecture Foundation

Today the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) announced that it is moving from its current location in a Daniel Burnham building to a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe building on the Chicago River, and creating a new exhibition and education space to be named the Chicago Architecture Center.

The new 20,500-square-foot center, designed by local firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG), will feature exhibition space, a lecture hall, an educational design studio, and retail. New York's Local Projects is designing the center's exhibitions, which will include a skyscraper exhibition housed in a double-height space.

"Architecturally the building is a gem," said AS+GG founding partner Gordon Gill, FAIA, in a press release. "The design will create a dynamic and elegant space for CAF that promotes patrons to fully engage in the influence Chicago has on global architecture."

In addition to the new center, the building will house 9,400 square feet of office space for CAF, placing the foundation and center directly across the street from the dock of their River Cruise. The announcement comes at a time when Chicago architecture is in the news: just last week, it was announced that the commissioners of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale's U.S. Pavilion are two Chicago institutions, and the second Chicago Architecture Biennial kicks off next week.

"We are all looking forward to providing Chicagoans and visitors with a forum to debate the future of urban areas and learn more about the city that invented the skyscraper," said Lynn Osmond, Hon. AIA, the foundation's president and CEO, in a press release.

Courtesy Chicago Architecture Foundation