F. Philip Barash works to shape more vibrant and just places.
Through journalistic and narrative writing, I expose stories about the changing American landscape. By facilitating urban planning projects, I contribute to shared places and social infrastructures of communities. And in my public curatorial and teaching practice, I engage contemporary issues that affect the built and natural environments.
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Common themes across my work include architecture and landscape, placemaking and public art, community engagement and civic projects, and equity and spatial justice.
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The Africana collection: Norman Teague’s diasporic design
“Africana” is simultaneously a declaration of intent and a perfectly human, warm thing — “comfortable with its Blackness” — and shaped by one body for the use of others. The collection is tactile and tough.
Placemaking in the Loop: art, poetry, and wellness in Chicago’s central business district
Chicago’s downtown organization made its mission to program and activate public spaces. Through art, dance, retail, music, poetry, and innovative partnerships, the Loop transformed into a vibrant and inclusive destination.
Echoes of the city: the making of Janet Echelman’s aerial sculpture
When the center dedicated to the legacy of the first African-American President was first conceived, the effort required multiple stakeholders to share a unified vision. A Request for Proposals signaled clear intentions and an ambitious vision.
Between two boxes: the interstitial imaginings of Jimenez Lai
Jimenez Lai’s body of work, from installation art to graphic novels, is not easily categorized. As Lai was designing a pavilion to represent Taiwan at the Venice Architecture Biennale, an exhibition offered a preview and a provocation.
Portraits of Columbus, IN: the many faces of modern design
In postwar America, a hybrid modernism emerged as design was inflected by the patterns of use, the preoccupations, the tastes of the places where it alighted. Columbus is a snapshot of that cultural encounter: the international wave of modernism shifting its shape as it traveled further inland.
Open House Chicago: citywide festival of architecture and community
A free-of-charge festival of architecture and community spaces, Open House Chicago is a highlight of the city’s calendar. The Chicago event reinvented the traditional festival model by partnering with community-based organizations on planning, governance, and public education.
On the Tarmac: demystifying airport markings across the globe
Tarmac markings are an obscure language that greets us as we glide down toward the earth. It is a code both intimately familiar and radically alien. “On the Tarmac” re-conceives this code.