Founder, UrbanLab
UrbanLab was founded in Chicago in 2000 by Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn as a collaborative office practicing architecture and urbanism. UrbanLab has been the recipient of numerous honors, and has developed a reputation as a professional practice known for its innovative solutions to, and long-range strategies for the problems of both public and private communities. UrbanLab undertakes work of different sizes and scales, from urban interventions to small residences, but its primary interest is in forward-looking projects that speculate on a more sustainable and resourceful tomorrow; to this end, UrbanLab is commissioned to produce both built work and purely speculative conceptual investigations.
UrbanLab’s current urban design projects include a study for the implementation of fifty “Eco-Boulevards” (linear parks) throughout Chicago as part of the 2016 Olympic Plan proposal, and a comprehensive masterplan for Aurora, the second largest city in Illinois. Architecture projects include commercial buildings and renovations, single and multi-family houses and renovations, conversions of industrial buildings into live + workspace lofts, restaurants, and museum installations. With each project, UrbanLab creates an integrated cross-disciplinary design team, collaborating with designers, engineers, artists, fabricators and builders to maximize design intelligence.
UrbanLab is also a research laboratory actively engaged in examining American cities and megalopolises. A new project, chil.us, examines Chicago's status as a global city. On the website www.chil.us, the current condition of the Chicago Megalopolis is revealed with maps, diagrams and statistics. The project charts comparative states of Chicago's land use, growth, population densities, energy/natural resources, infrastructural networks, and economic/leisure activities. The research project is an effort to document a broad informational context for those currently working on and/or thinking about the design and planning of Chicago specifically and American style urbanism in general.
Martin was recently named as the next Director of Archeworks, Chicago’s alternative design school where students create design solutions for social and cultural concerns. Martin also teaches city design and theory as an Associate Studio Professor in the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology.