Top 5 Dead Architects Mies van der Rohe Bertrand Goldberg Edward Dart Milton Schwartz Harry “Deever” Rockwell –Ben Schulman
Top 5 Pocket Neighborhoods Marionette Manor The Villa District Little Arizona Edgewater Glen Jackson Park Highlands –Ben Schulman
Top 5 Chicago Markets of Handcrafted Everything Renegade Craft Fair Dose Market Sauced Night Market Vends + Vibes: An Arts Marketplace One of a Kind Show + Sale –Vasia Rigou
Top 5 Lessons on Design from Expo Chicago Design criticism can push for sustainable practices and material sourcing Democratize design by bringing it to the vernacular spaces of your neighborhood Design is the future for expanding a critical cultural dialogue Design deserves its own critical space in journalism apart from art Study the object throughout its lifecycle—even to the landfill –Gregory Maher
Top 5 Places to Get Coiffed Stylisted—request Bianca Rich Johnathan Breitung Salon & Spa Goldplaited Civello Drybar –Amber Gibson
Top 5 Reasons Why The 606 is a Game-Changer Midwestern passive-aggression at its best FREE penthouse kitchen tours. That exposed timber, though! Real-life Frogger So many great butts Built-in parade route –Anjulie Rao
Top 5 Chicago design institutions MCA AIGA ChiDM Merch Mart Chicago Cultural Center –Fletcher Martin
Top 5 Chicago design events Open House Exhibitions at 50,000feet AIGA Chicago Annual Meeting AIA Design Excellence Awards NeoCon SOFA –Fletcher Martin
Top 5 Overused Chicago design motifs Skyline or Sears/Willis Tower Hot Dog “Da” + (Noun) Stars from City Flag Chicago Neighborhood Patchwork Thing –Fletcher Martin Top 5 Underused Chicago design motifs that don’t include guns, gangs, corruption, failed infrastructure, insurmountable debt City parking ticket Bald babe on top of CBOT building The Chicago River Lifeforms Burnham’s furry silhouette Plastic bags caught in fences and trees –Fletcher Martin
Top 5 Reasons Chicago Should Be a Fashion City The SAIC fashion department, one of the best and oldest in the country A really vibrant creative community, efficiently connected by Chicago’s optimum size Affordable cost of living for new talents and lower rents for new brands We have such stunning architecture, why not the clothes to match? We can count on Ikram Goldman’s discerning eye –Isa Giallorenzo
Top 5 Fashion Events of the Year Fashion Meets Music featuring the Chicago Fashion Incubator at Virgin Hotel’s Commons Club SAIC’s The Walk at Millennium Park Ikram Goldman’s talk at Lake FX The Fashion Brunch promoted by DCASE at Cindy’s rooftop at the Chicago Athletic Association Uniqlo Train Takeover on a CTA El train traveling in the Loop –Isa Giallorenzo
Top 5 Shops to Find Local Designers Humboldt House (Humboldt Park) Milk Handmade (Andersonville) Eskell (Wicker Park) Wolfbait (Logan Square) Modern Cooperative (Pilsen) –Isa Giallorenzo
Top 5 Local Fashion Designers to Watch Agnes Hamerlik Daryl Sneed (of Ricorso) Elena Bobysheva Lagi Nadeau Shernett Swaby –Isa Giallorenzo
Top 5 Best-Dressed Fashion Bloggers
Dani McGowan of Mermaid Waves (mermaidwavess.blogspot.com)/Photo: Kelly McGowan
Jena Gambaccini of ChiCityFashion (chicityfashion.com)/Photo: Heather Talbert
Jenn Lake of Style Charade (stylecharade.com)/Photo: Robert Zigmund
Lauren Fern of The Chicago Chic (thechicagochic.com)/Photo: Miguel Ontiveros
Ben Schulman is the editor of the design section of Newcity and co-host of “A Lot You Got to Holler,” the Newcity podcast on design, architecture and urbanism. His work with Newcity is one of many ventures he engages in to communicate the value of design and cities. Ben serves as the communications director for Small Change, a real estate crowdfunding platform that works to catalyze the development of transformative real estate projects. Previously, he was the communications director for the Chicago chapter of The American Institute of Architects, editor of Chicago Architect magazine and communications director for the urban think-tank, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). His writing has appeared and been noted in outlets such as ARCHITECT Magazine, Belt Magazine, ICON, New Geography, Streetsblog, The National Review, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pop City Media and as a contributor to The Urbanophile, among others. When not writing about cities, Ben serves as an editorial assistant for the journal New Media + Society, and helps head the Contraphonic Sound Series, an attempt to document cities through sound.
