In her latest book, The Art of Architectural Grafting, architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang digs into how the horticultural practice of “grafting” — joining a new plant to an older one so they can grow and thrive as one — inspires a fresh paradigm for sustainable design. As the founding partner of architecture and urban design practice Studio Gang, Jeanne and her firm are known for designing the 82-story Aqua Tower on Chicago’s skyline and the St. Regis Chicago. Then, she’s joined by Lee Bey, an editorial writer and architecture critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, for a lively and humorous chat through Chicago’s contemporary architecture problems and promises.

Watch the full conversation here.

Read the podcast transcript.

PHOTO: Jeanne Gang and Lee Bey at the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple at the Chicago Humanities Spring Festival in 2024.

Read:

Jeanne Gang, The Art of Architectural Grafting

Marc-Antoine Laugier, An Essay on Architecture

Daniel M. Abramson, Obsolescence: An Architectural History

Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden

Emanuele Coccia, The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture

Explore:

Guerilla Grafters

Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts

How to Bloom a Building with Jeanne Gang