For the 2026 Burnham Prize, the Chicago Architectural Club is partnering with World Business Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Center, Chicago Loop Alliance, and the Loop Arts District to invite architects, designers, artists, planners, and interdisciplinary teams to imagine the future of State Street in the heart of Chicago’s Loop.
For more than a century, State Street has served as Chicago’s “Great Street,” a corridor where commerce, culture, architecture, and civic life converge. Lined with landmark buildings by architects such as Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan, it became synonymous with downtown Chicago itself. Yet changing patterns of retail, mobility, work, and public life have transformed the Loop, creating a new moment of opportunity for the corridor.
The competition calls for bold, future-facing proposals that reimagine State Street as a vibrant, mixed-use civic spine for the twenty-first century. Participants are encouraged to explore ideas related to adaptive reuse, housing, retail, arts and culture, landscape, mobility, public space, programming, and economic revitalization. Proposals may operate at the scale of a building, block, corridor, or broader urban system, and should demonstrate how design can support a more active, inclusive, and resilient downtown.
A distinguished jury of architects, planners, critics, and civic leaders will guide the selection process, including Carol Ross Barney FAIA, Elizabeth Blasius, Phil Enquist FAIA, Eleanor Esser Gorski, Reed Kroloff, Anjulie Rao, Irene Sunwoo, and Ernest C. Wong PLA, FASLA, APA.
Awards include $3,000 for First Place, $2,000 for Second Place, $1,000 for Third Place, and honoraria for selected exhibited projects. Winning and selected entries will be featured in a public exhibition and shared with project partners as part of an ongoing dialogue about the future of downtown Chicago.
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