Dialogues: Carol Ross Barney

Carol Ross Barney, a Chicago native and graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the founder of Ross Barney Architects. With a heavy focus on research-based design practices her firm has had the ability to execute award-winning projects across multiple traditional design disciplines and scales. Not afraid to try something new, Ross Barney Architects make it a point to approach each project with a fresh perspective in the hopes of finding what the local community might bring to the project, and how that will affect the final design outcome.

With an extensive number of successful cultural, institutional, governmental, and infrastructural projects under her belt, it can be easily assumed that she has a true interest in the positive effects of her work on the public realm. Known locally for projects such at the Chicago Riverwalk and the Bloomingdale Trail (The 606), Carol has found a way extend her approach to designing buildings into the public realm. This cross-disciplinary approach has made for a practice that understands that the most important part of any project is the people that utilize the space.

Since starting her practice in 1981, Carol has made a name for herself by understanding that any architectural project is not created in a vacuum, but that the greater community has to be considered for a successful project to be created. This truth is at the heart of her work, and because of this the firm has been able to achieve a diverse portfolio of work that manages for each project to feel simultaneously unique and yet retain a similar consistent voice.

Interview published in July, 2015.

Intro Song

“Strella, Sing a Singsong to the Moon” by Studio Noir is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.