MISSION The Chicago Architectural Club provides an open forum, an infrastructural framework and support platform for architects, artists and writers to discuss, challenge and enrich a dialogue among practitioners and scholars. The Chicago Architectural Club organizes and hosts annually recurring international architecture competitions, lectures and exhibitions that foster debates within contemporary theory and criticism in art and architecture in order to promote a younger generation of architects and designers. Through our publications, outreach and collaboration we seek to engage the city of Chicago, its public and the larger audience of artist, architects and designers throughout the world.

PRESIDENT Tom Lee Tom is an award-winning architect and designer who invites collaboration and is adept at cultivating and curating ideas into a shared vision while respecting time, budget, place, and the environment.

With 20 years of experience across a diverse set of typologies and firms, his prior experience includes HDR where he served as Design Principal, and other leading firms including John Ronan Architects, Goettsch Partners, JAHN, Leers Weinzapfel, and Kohn Pedersen Fox. He graduated with a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati.

Passionate about the next generation of architects, Tom has taught at the University of Cincinnati and MIT, and regularly sits on juries at several universities. He has previously served on the Board of Directors for the MIT Club of Chicago, the Professional Board for PAWS Chicago, and the Auxiliary Board for the Chicago Architecture Center. Currently, he is a member of the City Club of Chicago, serves as co-chair of AIA Chicago’s Third Thursdays series, and is president of the Chicago Architectural Club. He is a licensed architect in Illinois and Wisconsin.

BOARD MEMBER
Brandon HallBrandon is the founder and principal of BHA – a design focused practice based in Chicago focused on contemporary living and learning. Brandon has a Masters of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture, and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. Brandon is a Chicago native, bringing his experience from working on three continents back home.

BOARD MEMBERChana Haouzi Chana Haouzi is an architect, educator, and founder of Architecture for Public Benefit. She is driven by the belief that the spaces we inhabit shape our lives—and that everyone deserves design that uplifts them. With comprehensive experience across all phases of project delivery—from design and documentation to construction administration—Chana excels in collaborating with mission-driven organizations to craft a clear vision and carry it through to completion. Guided by a collaborative process, she has partnered with organizations such as Music Box Foundation, Justice4Housing, the Boston Public Library, Resilient Cities Network, and YouthBuild Boston to create spaces that reflect and amplify their missions. Under her leadership, the firm has received the AIA Chicago Foundation’s Roberta Feldman Architecture for Social Justice Award and multiple AIA Chicago Design Excellence Awards, with work exhibited at the Chicago Architecture Center, the Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Boston Society for Architecture. Chana teaches at the University of Chicago, where her courses focus on socially engaged design and the role of architecture in shaping civic life. She is President of the Association for Community Design, a board member of the Chicago Architectural Club, and Associate Curator of the 2025 Chicago Architecture Biennial. She holds a Master of Architecture II from Harvard University, as well as a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from McGill University. She was awarded the 2020 Enterprise Rose Fellowship with the City of Boston and the AIA Young Architects Award in 2022.

BOARD MEMBERDrew Ranieri
Drew Ranieri is an architect and educator with over forty-five years of experience in the US and abroad. As a generalist, he has been involved with a wide spectrum of project types and scales over the years and places a high value on all aspects of the process from inception to completion. His approach is driven by curiosity, persistence and never being afraid to ask questions. How projects need to work and how they should feel are critical elements of making good architecture. Early on in his career he was lucky enough to have two mentors, Olivio Ferrari and Belinda Reeder, who nurtured his curiosity and his architectural worldview – he continues to strive to do the same for his collaborators in the studio, the shop and the field.

BOARD MEMBER Edoarda Corradi Dell’ AcquaEdoarda Corradi Dell’Acqua is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering (CAEE) at Illinois Institute of Technology where she teaches courses in technical drawing, architectural design, and high-performance building design. She also serves as Director of the Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program at the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship. Edoarda is the recipient of Illinois Tech’s 2021 John W. Rowe Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2023 she won the Solar Decathlon Richard King Award for Outstanding Faculty Advisor. Her work McCormick Place Redux has been presented within the Use-Re-Use Adaptive Modernism Workshop at the 2014 Venice Biennale. Additionally, she is on the Chicago Architectural Club board of directors, where she served as Co-President from 2019-2023.

BOARD MEMBER
Elva Rubio
Designer with more than 30 years of experience in a variety of practice fields, including urban design, interior design, design education, and communications, design strategy, and the built environment. Numerous publications have recognized Rubio as a leader in her fields and have earned her industry awards and participation in prestigious exhibitions.

Rubio worked as the Regional Design Counselor and Firm-Wide Practice Leader for Gensler in Urban Design, Commercial Buildings, and Design Strategy. Her work at Gensler won commissions for the Center on Halsted, the Chicago transit Authority, Columbia College, the Wrigleyville Master Plan, and Navy Pier's Centennial Vision. Her work has been exhibited in major museums and cultural institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Rubio also worked as Vice President and Design Director for the practices of HOK and Epstein.

BOARD MEMBER Elyse Agnello
Elyse Agnello has been practicing architecture in various forms for over a decade. She has a diverse professional background that spans from architectural design and construction to cultural event production. Throughout her career, she has successfully designed, fabricated, and managed projects of varying scale and type in Illinois, California, Spain, Germany and the UK. She has been an invited design critic at the Illinois Institute of Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ms. Agnello is also a CoFounder of Guild Row and the Design Principal for Platform Managers, a real estate development and venture management firm. She is NCARB Certified and a licensed architect in the State of New York, New Jersey, and Illinois.

Elyse brings a unique balance of design sensibility and pragmatic tact to the practice. She is skilled at composing material palettes, orchestrating unique spatial details, building team consensus, and synthesizing varied project aspirations into architectural realities. Her entrepreneurial endeavors and real estate development experience over the past 5 years has permeated her architectural practice and piqued her ongoing interest in the art of crafting meaningful spaces for people to engage one another and be together in. Elyse’s core strength is in collaboratively cultivating new ideas and fostering them into real-world places and things.

BOARD MEMBEREric Rothfeder
Eric Rothfeder is the founder of ERA, a Chicago-based design studio, and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture. He earned a B.A. with Distinction from Yale University and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. His award-winning projects have been featured in Dwell, Wallpaper⁎, Domus, and AN Interior, and have been exhibited at BSA Space in Boston, the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Italy.

BOARD MEMBERKevin HarringtonKevin Harrington served as President of the Chicago Architectural Club from 1989-1990. He is Professor Emeritus of Architectural History at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where he began teaching in 1978. Born in Rochester, NY, he majored in history at Colgate University (BA) and studied History of Architecture & Urban Development at Cornell University (MA, PhD). His thesis explored architecture in the Encyclopedie. His research and publications have focused on Chicago's architectural and urban development. He has taught for IIT in Italy and France, and he has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas - Austin, where he held the Ruth Carter Stevenson Chair, the Escola da Cidade, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brandenburg Technical University, Cottbus, Germany, and the University of Salerno, Italy. He is co-author, with Franz Schulze, of Chicago’s famous buildings, and with Edward Windhorst, of Lake Point Tower: a design history. He edited Mies van der Rohe: architect as educator, and contributed the essay "Order, space, proportion: Mies's curriculum at IIT." He also wrote "Ideas in action: Hilberseimer and the redevelopment of the South Side of Chicago," for In the shadow of Mies: Ludwig Hilberseimer, architect, educator and urban planner. With Michelangelo Sabatino, he is coeditor and contributor of Building, breaking, rebuilding, on IIT and neighboring Bronzeville.

BOARD MEMBER
Nathan RennichNathan is interested in using architecture to understand and support one another, from interpersonal to societal scales. He is an architectural designer at Barker Nestor and adjunct faculty at SAIC.

BOARD MEMBER
Mejay Gula Mejay Gula, AIA, is a licensed architect and Studio Director at Site Design Group in Chicago, where she provides leadership in practice culture, community engagement, and professional development. With more than twenty years of experience across architecture, urban design, and planning, she is known for advancing people-centered design approaches that align public vision with lasting impact.

Mejay has led award-winning civic and institutional projects, including the National Public Housing Museum and Haughville Riverfront Vision Plan in Indianapolis. She is the founder of the Tender House Project, which works to preserve and culturally activate Chicago’s historic bridgehouses along the Chicago River. Mejay serves on the boards of the Chicago Architectural Club and the McCormick Bridgehouse Museum and is a frequent speaker on design, equity, and civic space.

BOARD MEMBERTravis Rukamp Guided by the intersection of art and design, Travis focuses on creating fucitonal joyful, and inclusive spaces that meaningfully support those who use them. He defines project success by teh moment a space positively impacts its occupants. This outcome drives his commitment to advancing a more equitable future through design.

Growing up in a family with three generations of craftsmen, Travis' background is shaped by an early exposure to the world of design. This introduction to craft and spatial thinking naturally led him to pursue architectural studies. He applies this foundation to projects of varying complexity, constantly seeking design solutions that elevate both experience and performance.