Jeanne Gang to Receive City of Chicago's Fifth Star Award

Jeanne Gang is one of four Chicagoans to receive the city’s Fifth Star Awards, joining local luminaries Common, Kerry James Marshall, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The awards ceremony will take place at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on August 28, with special guest presenters.

“The Fifth Star Honors recognize the significant influence that these four honorees have had on Chicago’s magnificent art scene but also the world’s,” said Mark Kelly, Commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. “Our honorees ... have brought beauty and enlightenment to the world while representing a city that respects and values the magic they have created.”

Jeanne Gang is an architect and MacArthur Fellow advancing the possibilities of architecture and design in the twenty-first century—including their ability to make a positive social and environmental impact. She is the founding principal of Studio Gang, an architecture and urban design practice based in Chicago and New York. Her analytical and creative approach has produced some of today’s most innovative architecture, including the 82-story, undulating Aqua Tower in downtown Chicago; the world’s first purpose-built structure for social justice education, the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College; and the University of Chicago’s Campus North Residential Commons, whose curving landscape and pre-cast concrete buildings enrich the campus’ neo-Gothic tradition. Jeanne is the recipient of the National Design Award for Architecture from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and is a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur of France. In 2017 she was honored with the Louis I. Kahn Memorial Award and elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the author of three books and her work has been published and exhibited widely.

Jeanne Gang has been an SAH member since 2014.  
Read more about the City of Chicago’s Fifth Star Awards here.