Starship Chicago II Premiere

Elizabeth Blasius is an architectural historian and cofounder of Preservation Futures, a Chicago-based firm exploring the future of historic preservation through research, action, and design. Her work encourages people to consider placemaking through existing buildings and vintage communities, and explores the potential for historic preservation to examine more personal stories and bring them into the practice. She is an Adjunct Professor at the College of Architecture at IIT and is on the board of DOCOMOMO Chicago.

Frank Butterfield is the Chief Operating Officer at Landmarks Illinois. He joined the Landmarks Illinois staff in 2013, first as Springfield Office Director before taking over as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in 2021. As COO, Frank oversees Landmarks Illinois’s day-to-day operations statewide, is responsible for the organization’s sound financial management, and ensures it is hitting its strategic goals. Prior to joining Landmarks Illinois, he worked as director/field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the Wisconsin Field Office and held positions with the Roger Brown Study Collection and DePaul University in Chicago. Frank has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Boston College and a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Nathan Eddy is an award-winning American filmmaker and journalist specializing in architecture and urban planning issues. His first two films, The Absent Column and Starship Chicago, document the struggle to protect Chicago’s architectural heritage. In 2017, Eddy organized and led the successful protest movement to landmark New York City’s epochal postmodern skyscraper, Philip Johnson and John Burgee’s AT&T Building. Since then, he has directed the films Battleship Berlin, Helmut Jahn: In a Flash, and Starship Chicago II.

Stewart Hicks is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a cofounder of Design With Company (Dw/Co). His interests include how literature and architecture intersect in fiction, character, type, metaphor, etc. Dw/Co translates these themes into installations, speculative urban scenarios, temporary pavilions, and designs for buildings. The practice was recognized as a Next Progressive from Architect Magazine, Next Generation from Architectural Record, and a New Talent by Metropolis, and was featured in both Chicago Biennials. Stewart is also a MacDowell Fellow and former Hyde Chair of Excellence at the University of Nebraska.