“[Future Firm’s] projects work hard and on many levels – bringing together architecture, community, and culture in a powerful mix that inspires and enriches the lives of its users.”
Team
Partner
Ann Lui is an architect and founding principal of Future Firm. Previously, she practiced at SOM, Ann Beha Architects, and Morphosis Architects. She has held teaching positions at SAIC, University at Buffalo, and was the Cullinan Visiting Professor at Rice University. Ann was co-curator of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018 titled Dimensions of Citizenship. She co-edited Public Space? Lost and Found (2015) and Log 54 “Coauthoring” (2022). Ann was recently named Newcity’s “Designer of the Moment” (2018) and Crain’s “40 Under 40” (2018). She holds an SMArchS from MIT and a BArch from Cornell University. She is a member of the Steering Committee for the Metropolitan Planning Council’s Zoning and Land Use assessment, the Neighborhood Opportunity Fund’s Advisory Committee, and a member of the Advisory Committee for the State of Illinois Asian American and Pacific Islander Business Collective (IAAPIBC).
Partner
Craig Reschke, AIA is an architect and founding principal of Future Firm. Previously, Craig was a project architect at SOM and RODE Architects, where he led the design of buildings at many scales in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to his work at Future Firm, Craig also co-founded Hem House to bring contemporary residential projects to market with design-forward projects that reimagine the housing industry through architecture, construction, and user experience. He holds a MLA from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, where he graduated with the Jacob Weidenmann Prize, and a BArch from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.
Principal
Linda Chávez is an architect and principal at Future Firm leading design for projects across scales, with a focus on civic and community driven spaces. She has developed her career in Chicago, where she has worked with Gensler, JGMA and completed award winning work for Northeastern Illinois University, Columbia College Chicago, and Northwestern University. Linda’s commitment to the community extends far beyond her project work – as a Latino, female architect – she is focused on creating democratic spaces that attend and understand the intersectionality between feminism and racism, especially for the Latino community in the US. She has been recognized as Crain's 2022 notable executives of color in construction and commercial real estate. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tec de Monterrey, her Master in Project Management from Northwestern University and holds an Honorary Doctorate degree in Arts by Columbia College Chicago.
Associate
Jovana Crnomarkovic is an architect born in Belgrade, Serbia and raised in the American Midwest, deeply influenced by her life between these two vastly different places. Her upbringing among the post-war architecture of Belgrade shaped her interest in the narrative fictions created through design, and led to her thesis work titled “Imagining the Archive: Bogdanovic In Belgrade,” in which she staged correspondence with the Yugoslavian architect after a visit to his first monument in the Sephardic cemetery of Belgrade. In her professional life, she has experience working on commercial retail and food & beverage hospitality projects which has helped her develop her eye for material and millwork details. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northwestern University and her M.Arch from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Associate
Donna Ryu is a Korean-American architect. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Maryland and a Master of Architecture & Certificate in Urban Design from the University of Virginia. Gratefully, design has always been part of her upbringing - her mother went to art school and has a love for interior design; her father is a skilled tailor and has an innate aptitude for renovation and construction. Together, they run a small tailor shop and liquor store which allowed Donna the opportunities to learn through travel - her experiences have placed her in South Korea, China, and India to name a few. Her love of everything outdoors, climbing, and hip hop (particularly the glittery era of 90s hip hop) run deep. Home is wherever she is at the time but her roots are in Maryland.
Associate
Claire Wagner is an architect driven by a belief in architecture’s potential to make a positive public impact. She brings a multidisciplinary perspective and commitment to collaborative, equitable, and sustainable design outcomes in the civic realm. Her professional experience spans typologies and scales, from single-family residences to large-scale cultural, institutional, and educational projects. With a liberal arts background in art history and psychology as well as teaching experience in secondary education, Claire did not take the direct route to architecture. She earned her Master of Architecture from Rice University in Houston. Her research has taken her to Japan, Paris, and back to Chicago for her thesis focused on designing sites of community care, collective ownership, and resilience in closed schools.
Designer
Jessie Jacobe is a Chicago native and architectural designer who continues to live and work in the city. He has built his career working across a wide range of project types and scales, from large master plans and 400-meter twin towers to education buildings and exhibition design. Prior to joining Future Firm, Jessie worked at Studio Odile Decq, SOM, and JGMA, gaining experience on both global and community-focused projects. In recent years, his work has shifted toward collaborations with nonprofit clients, with a focus on socially impactful design. His recent projects include Neal Math + Science Academy in North Chicago and CircEsteem in Uptown. While his experience spans many areas of architecture, Jessie is particularly drawn to a human-centered approach that prioritizes the needs of underserved communities. He is known for his ability to think expansively, take creative risks, and develop ideas grounded in thoughtful research and careful execution. Jessie holds a M.Arch I - Master of Architecture degree from the University of Kansas and has studied internationally at Universität Stuttgart and the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Val de Seine.
Architect
Philana Quan is an architect from Northern Virginia who is curious about design, equity, and storytelling. She is deeply influenced by having grown up playing music, creating art, and listening to her family's oral histories. While receiving her B.Arch from Virginia Tech, she spent a transformative semester studying in Chicago and returned to the city post-graduation to join Future Firm. Her undergraduate thesis titled “Suburban Cultural Infill” reimagined the suburbs, through the eyes of a Vietnamese-Buddhist temple community, as a canvas for new programming and design possibilities.
Designer
YunWoo Kim is an architectural designer with a background in visual communication who is drawn to how place and memory shape the built environment. Born and raised in Malaysia, he spent much of his early life traveling throughout Southeast Asia absorbing the region’s layered histories and vernacular architectures. These experiences continue to shape his perspective on architecture, not just as a physical framework, but as something inseparable from its cultural and historical context. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he completed his undergraduate thesis, "The Mile-Long Living Room”. The project explored an innovative approach to senior housing, in partnership with a local non-profit, proposing modular unit typologies and community-focused programming.
Office Coordinator
Tami has over thirty years of experience in construction, with experience at all levels of office management and coordination. Tami received her degree in Business Management and has developed personal and professional growth with various sized companies. Her strength is in supporting the goals and visions of a business with emphasis on implementation and follow through.
News & Press
2026
- Architect's Newspaper, "Future Firm runs a practice willing to be an instigator"
- Archinect, "BLDUS, Future Firm, D’Arcy Jones, French 2D among 2026 Emerging Voices winners"
- Architectural Record, "The Architectural League Reveals 2026 Emerging Voices Winners"
- Architect Magazine, "The Architectural League of New York Names Its 2026 Emerging Voices"
2025
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Chicago Tribune, “Architecture becomes real through construction at Revolution Workshop”
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Chicago Sun Times, “Bronzeville’s historic arts center’s glow-up boosted by new $2 million grant”
- The Architect’s Newspaper, “2025 Best of Practice Awards: Future Firm | Best Small Firm Midwest”
- AN Interiors, “Best of the Best
AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2025”
- The Architect’s Newspaper, “Future Firm completes renovation and expansion for Revolution Workshop, a Chicago nonprofit“
- Dwell, “Chicago Is Experimenting With a Solution to Depopulation: New Housing on City-Owned Land”
- The Driehaus Foundation, “Spotlight: Ann Lui Discusses Future Firm’s Commitment to Inclusive Design”
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The Architect’s Newspaper, “Future Firm helps expand Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center”
- Black Art in America, “South Side Community Art Center Announces Plans for $15M Renovation and Expansion
2024
- Chicago Sun Times, “Art Institute of Chicago opens its first gallery devoted solely to Korean art”
- Architect's Newspaper, "Chicago-based Future Firm puts people first”
- Chicago Sun-Times, “Community space South Side Sanctuary opens in ‘heart’ of Bronzeville”
- Fox32, “South Side Sanctuary Opens in Bronzeville”
- Beyond the Surface, “Ann Lui | Future of Design” (podcast)
- The Architectural League, I Would Prefer Not To, “Future Firm” (podcast)
- The Ohio State University, “Architecture in the Open City: Ann Lui + Chicago”
2023
- Architect's Newspaper, "AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2023"
- Chicago Magazine, "How Justice of the Pies Made Its New Shop Accessible"
- Eater, “Superstar Baker Maya-Camille Broussard's Justice of the Pies to Debut Friday“
- Dwell, “Chicago Is Running a Design Contest to Create Infill Housing—Here’s a First Look at Submissions”
- Dwell, “Chicago Calls On the World’s Best to Design Infill Housing on Its Thousands of Empty Lots”
- Architect’s Newspaper, “An exhibition by Himali Singh Soin at the Art Institute of Chicago situates viewers within mythic catastrophes”
- Architect’s Newspaper, “Architects and designers share the best interior materials they’re currently using”
2022
- Architect’s Newspaper, “Future Firm designs a stylish eatery for Chicago’s South Side Bronzeville neighborhood“
- Architect Magazine, “Inside Out: Cultivating a Destination for Community, Local Art, and, of Course, Good Wine“
- Hospitality Design, “Bronzeville Winery Opens in Chicago”
- NewCity, “Design 50 2022: The Fifty People Who Shape Chicago | Ann Lui and Craig Reschke”
- Wallpaper*, “Chicago’s Future Firm aims to spearhead change”
- Dwell, “Here’s How We Fix the Hole in the Middle of the Housing Market”
2021
- Fast Company, “The middle class is being crushed by the housing crisis—and a solution is hiding in plain sight”
- Wallpaper*, “Hem House proposes new Chicago housing solution”
- Azure Magazine, “How Future Firm Finds Inspiration in the ‘Messy Ecology’ of Cities"
- The Republic, “Midnight light: Sears/Cummins building aims to be overnight sensation"
- Wallpaper*, "Architects create Indiana installations as Exhibit Columbus opens”
- Architect’s Newspaper, “Future Firm imbues a Chicago store and community space with flexible furniture”
- Sci-Arc Channel, “On Futures: Future Firm”
2020
- ArchDaily, “Graham Foundation Announces 2020 Individual Grants”
- Wallpaper, “Redesigning The Silver Room community space in Chicago”
- Architect’s Newspaper, “Exhibit Columbus reveals 2020–2021 curatorial theme and Miller Prize recipients”
- NewCity, “Design 50: Who Shapes Chicago”
- Area (Italy), “A new generation of architects paint a diverse community practicing in Chicago
2019
- Architect Magazine, “In Planning Their 'Future Firm,' Future Firm was Born”
- Archinect, “Meet Future Firm, the Chicago-Based Practice Calling on Architects to Visualize Vibrant New Futures”
- Chicago Magazine, “Who’s Got Next?: The Activist Architect”
- Architect Magazine, “Next Progressives: Future Firm”
2018
2017
- Next City, “Chicago Firm Calls for Creating Office of the Public Architect”
- The Architect’s Newspaper, “The Night Gallery projects architectural visualizations into the streets of Chicago”
- Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, City of Chicago. IncentOvate Grant (with Chicago Architecture Foundation)
- Times Square Alliance with the Urban Design Forum. Times Square Valentine, Invited Finalist
2016
- Archdaily, “Manhattanisms: 30 Firms Envision New York City's Future Through Drawings and Models”
- DNAInfo, “Alleys Transformed Into Main Streets: Could it Happen?”
- WGN, “Re-imagining City Garages”
- Chicago Architect, “Future Firm Seeks Balance Between Innovative and Practical”
- Oslo Architecture Triennale, After Belonging. Honorable Mention for “Cooperative Arctic Hedge Fund”
2015—Before
- Architectural Record, “Exhibition Review: Designing a Presidential Legacy”
- Chicago Prize, Chicago Architectural Club. Honorable Mention for “Obama Drone Aviary”
- Architizer, “Step Right Up to This Traveling Architectural Circus“
- ArchDaily, “Crowdfunding: Transformed Truck To Take Art & Architecture on the Road“
Opportunities
Future Firm offers health benefits, competitive PTO, and a salary commensurate with experience. Additionally, Future Firm supports work-life balance through various initiatives, including two weeks' firm-wide Winter holiday closure, payment of licensure exams, a “Culture Vulture” fund for mutual mentorship, and flexible scheduling and work-from-home policies.
Future Firm is currently hiring in the following roles. All candidates should apply at: https://futurefirm.space/apply
Architectural Designer (0-3 years)
Future Firm is seeking a recent graduate with 0-3 years of experience to join our Chicago office. A professional degree in architecture is required. This is a full-time, entry-level role which includes undertaking a variety of assignments on projects across scales, working at every phase of design. The junior designer will work in collaboration with other team members and under the supervision of project architects to develop site analysis, renderings and design presentation materials, and technical drawings and other project documentation. Junior designers may also participate in design research projects and gain experience in construction administration/management.
As part of a design-focused and growing practice, we are seeking a candidate who is independent, self-motivated, positive, and who also has strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset. An ideal candidate would demonstrate curiosity and problem-solving in their approach to design. Additionally, this role requires the ability to work on multiple projects or tasks simultaneously, creating drawings in Revit, prioritizing work, and collaborating with diverse teams.
Requirements
- 0-3 years of experience
- Applicants should be proficient in Revit, Enscape, Rhino and Adobe CS
- Excellent communication skills, including an ability to build rapport with expanded teams including contractors, client, and other project stakeholders
- A five-year bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in Architecture
- Authorized to work in the U.S
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
We are seeking a creative and detailed-oriented Marketing Coordinator to join our team. The ideal candidate will be responsible for working with firm leadership to design and develop project pursuits and business development efforts including proposals and interview materials; manage the firm’s social media, assist with press relations, manage public engagements and events; and implement other marketing strategies to promote the firm, our clients, and relevant projects to multiple audiences. The position will also require coordination and collaboration with a consultant media relations team, firm leadership, and office staff.
As part of a design-focused and growing practice, we are seeking a candidate who is independent, self-motivated, positive, and who also has strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset. Additionally, this role requires the ability to work on multiple projects or tasks simultaneously, creating proposals in InDesign, prioritizing work, and collaborating with diverse teams.
Key Responsibilities include:
- Business Development:
- Marketing & Communication
- Brand Management & Artistic Direction:
- Events & Programming
Internship (Summer 2026)
Non-licensed architectural staff. Interns should be enrolled in a professional degree in Architecture. This is a short-term, entry-level role performing assignments across phases of design and projects at multiple scales. Interns will work with Future Firm team members on projects under the supervision of team members, including drafting, rendering, modeling in Revit and through physical models, as well as undertaking research and participating in self-initiated projects from exhibitions to installations and events.
Texts
“Building Code as Battleground: Activism, Amendments, and (Co)Authorship”
in 52: Instruments of Service
Elizabeth Bowie Christoforetti and Jacob Reidel, eds. Harvard Design Magazine, 2024
Download PDF
“Curating Collective Space”
in Futures of the Architectural Exhibition: Mario Ballesteros, Giovanna Borasi, Ann Lui, Ana Miljacki, Zoë Ryan, Martino Stierli, Shirley Surya in Conversation with Students
Reto Geiser and Michael Kubo, eds. Park Books, 2023
Download PDF
“Building Justice”
in Log 59: Observations on architecture and the contemporary city
Bryony Roberts, ed., New York: Anyone Corporation, 2023
Download PDF
Log 54: Coauthoring, New York: Anyone Corporation, 2022
Full Issue
“America: I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing”
in 48: America
Mark Lee and Florencia Rodriguez, eds. Harvard Design Magazine, 2021
Full Issue
“Goodbye to the Amber Glow”
in Nocturnal Landscapes
Iker Gil, ed. Chicago: Mas Context, 2021
Full Book
“Interview”
in Studio Gang: Architecture
Jeanne Gang, ed. Phaidon Press, 2020
Full Book
“Violation City”
in Perspecta 54: Onus
Caroline Acheatel, Paul J. Lorenz, Paul Rasmussen and Alexander Stagg, eds., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020
Download PDF
“Toward an Office of The Public Architect”
in Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice
Bryony Roberts, ed., New York: Anyone Corporation, 2020
Download PDF
“From documents to directives”
in Codify: Parametric and Computational Design in Landscape Architecture,
Bradley Cantrell and Adam Mekies, eds., London; New York: Routledge, 2018
Full Book
“In the Wake of the City: Elmgreen & Dragset’s Dream of Public Space at the Whitechapel Pool”
in Elmgreen and Dragset: This Is How We Bite Our Tongue,
Laura Smith et al., London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2018
Full Book
Dimensions of Citizenship
Los Angeles, CA: Inventory Press, 2018
Read Online
“Reading After Belonging in the Heartland”
in And Now: Architecture Against a Developer Presidency,
James Graham et al., eds., New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2017
Read Online
Public Space? Lost and Found,
Cambridge, MA: SA+P Press, 2017
Full Book
“Data Dreams: The Compupter Group and Architecture by Spreadsheet, 1967-84”
in Drawing Futures: Speculations in Comtemporary Drawing for Art and Architecture,
Laura Allen and Luke Caspar Pearson, eds., UCL Press, 2016
Full Book
“Book Review: Pornotopia: An Essay on Playboy’s Architecture and Biopolitics”
in Journal of Architectural Education,
September 7th, 2016
Read Online
“Command Line: The Computer-Aided Office”
in OfficeUS Atlas,
Eva Franch i Gilabert, Michael Kubo, Ana Miljacki and Ashley Schaefer, eds., Zurich: Lars Muller, 2015
Full Book
Thresholds 43: Scandalous,
Cambridge, MA: SA+P Press, 2015
Read Online
312-598-1567
info@future-firm.org
226 S. Wabash Ave. Ste 500
Chicago, IL 60604
© Future Firm 2025