January 2023 City Scoop: Chicago
City Grill
Carol Ross Barney
Principal
Ross Barney Architects Chicago
“The single biggest issue right now is how we will live and work in our post-COVID society, and it affects almost everything in a big city like Chicago—where will we work, how we get there, when we get there, what we do away from work. It will change how the city looks and functions. I think the changes may be profound,” says Ross Barney.
Soaring costs and material shortages have added more unpredictability to the industry. “Construction was crazy the last few years, mostly because of material and labor availability compounded by uncertainty. It’s a little better now,” she says.
The firm is working with Brook Architecture to design DuSable Park, a 3.5-acre space in Chicago at the mouth of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. The park will honor Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a black French/Haitian who was the first non-indigenous person to live in Chicago.
“I really like doing this work. Looking for more efficient solutions; that’s the sort of work we like to do in my studio,” she says.
