Join us for an evening hosted by the Chicago ICAA, featuring a cocktail reception followed by a lecture and book signing with Stuart Cohen & Julie Hacker.
In their forty-year practice, Cohen & Hacker have developed strategies for building additions that reflect a theoretical and philosophical approach to altering older structures. They are dedicated to Historic Preservation and maintaining the scale and quality of the built environment. They believe that recycling existing buildings, retrofitting them to meet new energy standards, and preserving their embodied energy, as well as their cultural and historical significance, is the most sustainable way to practice architecture.
Their new book, First Additions: Strategies for Adding On, presents theoretical essays on making additions, arguing for the appropriateness and perceived significance of a building addition as the determinant of the appropriate architectural language. The book also features a portfolio of their residential additions based on this philosophy.
During the lecture, they will present strategies for adding onto older buildings, illustrated by both historic examples and examples of their work.
About the Speakers
Both Stuart Cohen and Julie Hacker are Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, and both have served on the Evanston Preservation Commission. Cohen is the author of four books on the history of Chicago’s residential architecture and is a recipient of the ICAA’s Arthur Ross Award, for writing, history and theory. In 2022 he received the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Their firm Cohen & Hacker Architects received an Award for Excellence from the Society of Architectural Historians. Both Cohen and Hacker edited the Chicago issue of The Classicist for the ICAA.
Julie Hacker has served on the National AIA CRAN (Custom Residential Architects Network) Board, and chaired the Steering Committee for the local CRAN AIA Chapter. She has also served on the Chicago Chapter AIA Board of Directors and served for six years as a Preservation Commissioner for the City of Evanston helping to rewrite the city’s Preservation Ordinance and a Preservation Ordinance for solar panels on historic homes.