Contemporary Follies, a new book by Keith Moskow and Robert Linn, lists Associate Professor Frank Flury‘s 2009 design/build studio project among its outstanding examples of contemporary design that address our place in nature.

The Field Chapel project was designed and executed by students in Flury’s advanced design/build studio for an ecumenical church cooperative in Boedigheim, Germany. Under Flury’s direction, the students developed “an interdenominational chapel, a space for people who are in a search for God – a place for quiet reflection, but also one that welcomes hikers and cyclists who appreciate a rest stop that has a sense of beauty.”

In a dramatic step forward for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s research department, steel giant ArcelorMittal has awarded the CTBUH a $300,000 grant to study the life cycle of structural systems in tall buildings. The two-year study, announced during the 9th World Congress dinner in Shanghai, will focus on different aspects of the long-term sustainability of different frameworks of towers more than 300 meters. “At the end we hope to have a tool to reassess the sustainability of tall buildings,” said Jean-Claude Gerardy, manager, commercial sections sales and marketing for ArcelorMittal.

Chicago Architectural Club‘s latest project, “2012 Chicago Prize Competition: Future Prentice” generated 81 new visionary proposals for Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. The effort was led by CAC co-presidents Brian Strawn and IIT College of Architecture Adjunct Associate Professor Karla Sierralta, in collaboration with AIA Chicago and the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

The project asked for alternative solutions for one of Chicago’s most architecturally significant modern buildings, Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital, now slated for demolition by its owner, Northwestern University.

Competition jurors included Professor John Ronan and Studio Associate Professor Martin Felsen.  Recent IIT Architecture alums Noel Turgeon (M.Arch. ’12), Andres Lemus (B.Arch. ’12) and Stephanie Fumanelli (B.Arch. ’12) submitted entries along with Adjunct Professor Terry Surjan.

Chicago Architectural Club also invited ten young studios to submit commentaries and proposals for Prentice, including the studios of Studio Assistant Professor Mary Pat Mattson, Adjunct Associate Professor Martin Klaschen, and Studio Associate Professor Tim Brown.

Work from the Future Prentice competition is featured in the exhibit “Reconsidering an Icon” currently on display at the Chicago Architecture Foundation until February. The work will also be featured in a forthcoming publication, “100 Ideas for Prentice.”