Chicago: new local architecture/art/design publications

New local publications may help lift Chicago's design persona

By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic
Published June 28, 2007

It has been a long time since Chicago had an architectural magazine worthy of the city's status as a leading center of design. But the architectural publishing scene here finally appears to be heating up and may even generate some healthy competition.

The Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects announced last week that it will kill Focus, its dreary black-and-white monthly, and replace it with Chicago Architect, a four-color bimonthly that will debut in October and be available to the public as well as members. New York-based McGraw-Hill will be the publisher. (Full disclosure: I am a contributing editor for Architectural Record magazine, which is also published by McGraw-Hill.)

Separately, the founding editor of The Architect's Newspaper, a three-year-old New York-based paper that started a West Coast edition in February, confirmed that his publication is gearing up for a Chicago edition that might launch in the first quarter of 2008.

The publications could fill a hole in the city's architecture culture that has existed since 1994 when once-renowned Inland Architect magazine was sold to a Chicago-based trade publisher, Real Estate News Corp., after falling on hard financial times. Since then, the magazine has become far less relevant to the city's architectural debate. It is described as a quarterly on the publisher's Web site, sandwiched between such titles as Chicago Bride and New Accountant. The publisher, now called R.E.N. Corp., did not respond to calls for comment from the Tribune.

Nonetheless, the new Chicago design publications face challenges and they could compete for advertising.

Showcase for innovation

Chicago Architect will have to prove it is not a shill for AIA members. The Architect's Newspaper needs to secure financial backing and name an editor. "A lot of people are interested, but then when they see what the salary is and how hard the work is day to day, they don't want to do it," said William Menking, the newspaper's founding editor.

To be distributed for the first time on Oct. 26, during AIA Chicago's annual awards event, Chicago Architect has a mission of showcasing innovative work by members, publishing interviews with them, and reporting on technical developments and other trade news.

Its editor will be Chicago magazine contributing editor Dennis Rodkin, who writes the magazine's monthly "Deal Estate" column on local real estate, and contributors will include Lee Bey, former architecture critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. But Zurich Esposito, who directs the Chicago AIA chapter, will have the final say on content. And since Esposito reports to the chapter members, a key issue is whether Chicago Architect will have license to criticize work by Chicago AIA members.

"I would like for this publication to have a voice and to express opinion," Esposito said. A negative assessment of a member's work will be allowed "if it's done respectfully," he said. Chicago Architect won't be "a sort of pay-to-play publication."

The magazine will have an initial circulation of 4,500, Esposito said. It will be free to the chapter's 3,000 members and will be distributed, also for free, at design outposts such as the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, he said.

Meanwhile, after holding a focus group with members of the Chicago architecture community, Menking is talking to two or three venture capitalists about backing a Chicago edition of The Architect's Newspaper, he said. He's also in discussions with "a couple of different people" about editing the publication.

Midwestern focus

In New York, where the AIA's New York chapter puts out the quarterly magazine Oculus, The Architect's Newspaper has carved out a niche with a mix of news, in-depth features, critiques, opinion and gossip. Published 20 times a year, it has a controlled circulation of 12,000, Menking said. A Chicago version of the newspaper would likely have a comparable local focus, broadened to include surrounding Midwestern states, Menking said. Chicago architects "didn't want us to claim [the newspaper] was about Chicago and write about New York," he said.

Esposito, for one, is rooting for The Architects' Newspaper to make it here. "I admire that publication very much," he said. "It's a different sort of publication. It's not a colorful glossy magazine. There's certainly a place for that. I think there's room for both."