Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects is a Chica­go-based archi­tec­ture, urban design, and land­scape archi­tec­ture stu­dio; design­ing pub­lic spaces that enrich qual­i­ty of life and well being, for all.

The Chica­go River­walk may be the most vis­cer­al­ly sat­is­fy­ing new project of the sea­son. We see col­lec­tions of tall build­ings, the streets between them, and peo­ple, all pre­sent­ed episod­i­cal­ly and in high relief. We are in a liv­ing muse­um — one with no roof and no limits.

Reed Kroloff, New York Times

An unri­valed archi­tect for the peo­ple, Bar­ney exudes design excel­lence, social respon­si­bil­i­ty, and gen­eros­i­ty. Through­out all of her work, she has endeav­ored to make the world a bet­ter place.

The American Institute of Architects, 2023 Gold Medal Citation

Car­ol Ross Bar­ney award­ed the 2023 AIA Gold Medal, the first liv­ing woman to indi­vid­u­al­ly accept the award and only the sixth Chica­go archi­tect — the first in 60 years — to win the medal. It is the archi­tec­ture pro­fes­sion’s high­est hon­or, award­ed annu­al­ly by Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Architects. 

Learn more about Car­ol’s career

Jus­tice
Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects is ded­i­cat­ed to empow­er­ing a sense of place, pride, and belong­ing; in our work and in our stu­dio.
 

Envi­ron­men­tal Stew­ard­ship
Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects designs to pre­serve the plan­et for future gen­er­a­tions and is a sig­na­to­ry of the AIA 2030 Com­mit­ment and Archi­tects Advo­cate. No mat­ter the scope or scale, each of the stu­dio’s projects explore an inven­tive and inte­grat­ed approach to stew­ard­ship; any­thing less is not an option.

Ross Bar­ney Archi­tec­t’s work has been ground­ed in a belief that excel­lent design is a demo­c­ra­t­ic right. Archi­tec­ture should be wel­com­ing to all; ask­ing a com­mu­ni­ty to expand their bound­aries, to explore and cre­ate, to com­pro­mise and dis­cuss, to hope and build. This stew­ard­ship of equi­ty allows a project to speak broad­ly about pride and own­er­ship while estab­lish­ing itself as a com­mu­ni­ty icon. 

DuS­able Park
Named in hon­or of Jean Bap­tiste Pointe DuS­able, the first non-native set­tler and ​“Founder of Chica­go”, DuS­able Park will become an over­due acknowl­edge­ment of the city’s his­to­ry and an icon­ic pub­lic space. Sit­ed where the Chica­go Riv­er and Lake Michi­gan meet, the park design is anchored by a series of mounds, formed from exist­ing on-site soils. Mean­der­ing paths frame views of the city, lake, and landscape. 

Kran­nert Cen­ter for the Per­form­ing Arts Mas­ter Plan
Opened in 1969, the Kran­nert Cen­ter for the Per­form­ing Arts at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois Urbana-Cham­­paign is laud­ed as one of the Unit­ed States’ pre­mier uni­ver­si­­ty-based per­form­ing arts com­plex­es. Designed as an​“acad­e­my” the plan enhances civic space while bring­ing to life a vision of an arts block where stu­dents, artists-in-res­i­­dence, and leg­ends can inter­act, engage, and collaborate.

Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects releas­es it’s sec­ond mono­graph — ​“The Peo­ple’s Archi­tect — Car­ol Ross Barney”. 

Pub­lic space is the soul of the stu­dio. This book cel­e­brates the his­to­ry and char­ac­ter of the peo­ple Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects designs for.

​“Car­ol’s archi­tec­ture ris­es direct­ly out of the needs and aspi­ra­tions of the peo­ple who use it… Over a remark­able career she nev­er quite los­es the voice of the peo­ple. With lit­tle ego and tremen­dous grit, she is remak­ing the pub­lic sphere in ways that pre­serve democ­ra­cy and dis­trib­ute ben­e­fits fair­ly.” — Avinash Rajagopal, Edi­tor-in-Cheif, Metrop­o­lis Magazine

From the Archive
Com­plet­ed in 2005, the Okla­homa City Fed­er­al Build­ing became the first fed­er­al build­ing to be designed by a Women Archi­tect. The project is a philo­soph­i­cal and prac­ti­cal response to tragedy, mak­ing a state­ment on the role archi­tec­ture plays in pro­tect­ing and inspir­ing society.

Pulitzer Prize win­ning archi­tec­ture crit­ic Paul Gold­berg­er described the build­ing as “.…a pub­lic space… The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is not inter­est­ed in bar­ri­cading itself in a bunker, but in fact, makes a state­ment to the pub­lic that they own this build­ing, which is what pub­lic archi­tec­ture should be.”