Could Be Architecture

Let's go 👋🏼

Happy 2026 from Could Be! Here’s peek at last year’s highlights: —Designing ‘Little Second City’, an interactive play space for @chicagochildrensmuseum and @langhamchicago . 📸 @griffin_imaging_studios —Visioning urban design frameworks for public art and public spaces in Bloomington, Indiana @tradesdistrict . With @citybloomington and @iubloomington . —Curating the 2024–25 cycle of @exhibitcolumbus ‘YES AND,’ featuring 12 public installations from August–November. With curatorial partners @preservationfutures @rasul.i.am @too_black and Mila Lipinski. 📸 @hadleyfruits — Welcoming over 1,000 visitors to the 4th edition of the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival in October, with @lawndalepopupspot , @oacchicago , @architectureforpublicbenefit , and @shafcho . —Contributing scholarly drawings and showcasing students’ work at the ‘Time Space Existence’ exhibition (@ecc_italy ) at the @venice.architecture.biennale . —Contributing our Festival Cartography drawing to the ‘Common Chicago’ exhibition, part of the @chicagoarchitecturebiennial —on view at the @mascontext Reading Room until Jan 31, 2026! 📸 Dan Kelleghan. —Repping @archatillinois at the @chicagoarchitecturebiennial ‘Everything Chicago’ symposium. —Designing @cloudmountainkombucha ’s new taproom in Urbana, IL. —Giving public lectures at UC Denver (@cudenvercap ), University of Nebraska (@unlarchitecture ), and College of DuPage (@cod_architecture ). Repping @archatillinois on the road! —Winning the 2025 @segddesign Global Design Award for the ‘Carousel for Companionship’! —Debuting a short film, ‘GATEWAYS’, co-produced with Myles Emmons, streaming on YouTube (link in bio!). —Collaborating with @historicalcairoillinois ’ Don Patton to develop early concepts of a future commemorative park in Cairo, IL, and supporting Don’s team, @magdalenanovoa , and @juliarendleman to help launch the first phase of the Cairo African American Heritage Trail. Thank you to all our community partners, visionary clients, and creative collaborators! Deep gratitude to our super talented project team members @amirhossein__zarei_ , @warmthofthedoorway , @kuh.lida ! Looking forward to future world-mending and worldmaking in 2026!

Farwell 2025 👋🏼

We’re excited to share photographs (3 of 3) of Cloud Mountain Kombucha’s new taproom, a locally minded brewery in Urbana, Illinois, serving up the many flavors of the Midwest. Our design centers on flexible furnishings, bold graphics, and vibrant colors—an identity as funky and refreshing as the kombucha itself. A built-in communal table folds into the more traditional bar, creating an open zone for conversation and conviviality. Overhead, a felt canopy sweeps through the space as a single curving gesture, guiding visitors from the entry toward the bar. Be sure to sample Cloud Mountain’s impeccable Spirulina & Spearmint kombucha—the beverage’s brilliant teal hue echoes the taproom’s graphics. Design team: Joseph Altshuler, Zack Morrison Client: @cloudmountainkombucha 📸 Photographs: @griffin_imaging_studios #kombucha #taproom #urbana #urbanaillinois #boneyardcreek #interiorarchitecture #supergraphics

We’re excited to share photographs (2 of 3) of Cloud Mountain Kombucha’s new taproom, a locally minded brewery in Urbana, Illinois, serving up the many flavors of the Midwest. Our design centers on flexible furnishings, bold graphics, and vibrant colors—an identity as funky and refreshing as the kombucha itself. A built-in communal table folds into the more traditional bar, creating an open zone for conversation and conviviality. Overhead, a felt canopy sweeps through the space as a single curving gesture, guiding visitors from the entry toward the bar. Be sure to sample Cloud Mountain’s impeccable Spirulina & Spearmint kombucha—the beverage’s brilliant teal hue echoes the taproom’s graphics. Design team: Joseph Altshuler, Zack Morrison Client: @cloudmountainkombucha 📸 Photographs: @griffin_imaging_studios #kombucha #taproom #urbana #urbanaillinois #boneyardcreek #interiorarchitecture #supergraphics

We’re excited to share photographs of Cloud Mountain Kombucha’s new taproom, a locally minded brewery in Urbana, Illinois, serving up the many flavors of the Midwest. Our design centers on flexible furnishings, bold graphics, and vibrant colors—an identity as funky and refreshing as the kombucha itself. A built-in communal table folds into the more traditional bar, creating an open zone for conversation and conviviality. Overhead, a felt canopy sweeps through the space as a single curving gesture, guiding visitors from the entry toward the bar. Be sure to sample Cloud Mountain’s impeccable Spirulina & Spearmint kombucha—the beverage’s brilliant teal hue echoes the taproom’s graphics. Design team: Joseph Altshuler, Zack Morrison Client: @cloudmountainkombucha 📸 Photographs: @griffin_imaging_studios #kombucha #taproom #urbana #urbanaillinois #boneyardcreek #interiorarchitecture #supergraphics

This past weekend, The Society for Experiential Graphic Design (@segddesign ) recognized Carousel for Companionship, our social infrastructure design and supergraphic landscape in Columbus, Indiana, with a 2025 SEGD Global Design Award in the Public Installation category. Since 1987, the SEGD Global Design Awards have set the standard of excellence for experiential design, honoring work that connects people to place. Honor awards recognize exemplary distinction in completed experience design projects. Juror 1 noted, “It’s joyful, generous, and full of heart—turning a vacant space into a vibrant gathering place that invites connection, play, and shared experience. It’s a beautiful reminder of what design can do with very little.” Juror 2 reflected, “Bold and eye-catching, this public installation is a seemingly simple mix of graphics and community building interactives that packs a big punch.” We’re happy also happy to share that the Carousel was acquired by the City of Columbus’s Department of Parks and Recreation (@columbusinparks ) and is spinning again and open the public at NexusPark (@nexusparkcolumbusin ). Stay tuned for grand re-opening event in 2026.   Many thanks to @artsincolumbus for your ongoing partnership! Cheers to the original commissioners @landmark.columbus @exhibitcolumbus and @cmad_art , with design research support from @archatillinois and @faaatillinois . Deep gratitude to muralist partners @whackminx and @thekeywordsco . Hats off to fabricators @ignitionarts for the initial build and @broparco for the reinstallation and tune-up. Photo by @griffin_imaging_studios . Design team: Joseph Altshuler, Zack Morrison, and Amir Zarei (@amirhossein__zarei_ ). More info : /projects/carousel-for-companionship/

“Common Chicago” is on view at the MAS Context Reading Room until January 31, 2026. The exhibition showcases a series of recently completed and newly commissioned projects for this exhibition by Chicago-based practices that envision a shared present and future. • • • Featuring large-scale drawings, collages, and conceptual models, “Common Chicago” presents thoughtful approaches to how buildings and common spaces can contribute to a thriving, equitable, and sustainable Chicago. • • • Drawings (1) Borderless Studio (@borderless_studio ) “Creative Grounds” (2) Converge Architecture (@converge_architecture ) “MAAFA Center for Arts & Activism” (3) Could Be Design (@couldbearchitecture ) “Festival Cartography“ (4) KOO (@kooarchitecture ) “Altgeld Gardens Family Resource Center“ (5) Latent (@latent_design ) “Rusu-McCartin Club“ • • • #mascontext #commonchicago #mascontextreadingroom

Happy Halloween! This month, we enjoyed marching in the @artsinthedark parade as part of the second annual #architectsguild. Joseph and Zack's magnetically-linked headpiece embodies the Illinois Regional Library for the Blind (1978), designed by Stanley Tigerman and Jerome R. Butler. The walls of the building’s interior and exterior are vibrant shades of red and yellow because, Tigerman wrote, “the last thing a blind person can ‘see’ is bright color bathed in light… Blind persons are as entitled to metaphorical symbolism as are the sighted." On one side of the building, a wave-like window echoes the shape of an undulating countertop located in the library’s central space, a deliberately tactile, interactive surface for visitors to read at. Thank you to @architectureforpublicbenefit for organizing! 📸 @eriellebakkumphotography @aiachicago @archatillinois @faaatillinois #architecture #chicago #chicagoarchitecture #parade #headpiece #costume #stanleytigerman #animatearchitecture

We’re thrilled to announce that the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival (CSDF) returns for its 4th edition, opening SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 and running through October 25! Link in bio for full schedule of 2025 public programs. CSDF brings together neighbors, community organizations, designers, artists, students, and faith leaders to co-create sukkahs—structures inspired by Jewish tradition—reimagined as places of belonging, solidarity, and hope. CSDF models how interfaith and intercultural collaboration can transform contested histories into shared futures. By anchoring the sukkahs in ongoing neighborhood use, we aspire to cultivate living monuments to resilience: ‘third spaces’ that celebrate our collective humanity, and offer sanctuary for reflection, dialogue, and action toward a more just and compassionate world. During CSDF, the landscape of unique sukkah structures is open daily to the public and activated with programming. After CSDF, each sukkah is relocated and re-installed at the organizations that co-designed them as permanent program spaces, including as a bicycle kiosk, DJ booth, pop-up theater, healing station, and garden sanctuary. Artistic Director: @couldbearchitecture Venue Director: @lawndalepopupspot Community Design Director: @architectureforpublicbenefit Public Program Co-Directors: @oacchicago , @_thecraigpoint , @shafcho Festival Lot Steward: @reshorna.fitzpatrick , @annamarialeon7 Design/Build Contributors: @gid__s , @phswiatek , @resolverstudio , @nazmeevaa , @johndavidwagner , @kee.mees , @adelm97 , @neal.works , @uthmn.o , @mobilemakers_chicago Community Organization Participants: @workingbikes , @one.lawndale.arts.activism , @chicagoparks , @theatrey , @ucanchicago , Stone Temple Baptist Church Program Partners: @chihumanities , @chicagomuseum , @judaismunbound , @lexrofeberg @sacred_shift , @jewishmuseumchicago , @ytasha , @zeshan , @eateverydayfeast , Flava Food 4 the Soul, Chicago Klezmer Ensemble, @openhousechicago Fiscal Agent: @designmuseumchi Sponsors: Driehaus Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, @innovation80fund , Jules and Gwen Knapp Charitable Foundation CSDF is a partner of @chicagoarchitecturebiennial

Thank you to Joseph Altshuler (@couldbearchitecture ) for the thoughtful article on “for Mecca” for @archpaper : “In addition to standing as a tantalizing public artwork in its own right, ‘for Mecca’ also gestures toward future strategies for artists, graphic designers, and architects to explore—tactics that challenge the conventions of static, singular monuments, so often carved in stone and lifted onto plinths divorced from everyday life. Instead, ‘for Mecca’ proposes spatial graphics that invite immersion, inhabitation, and intimacy, opening new ways to gather publics, share collective memories, and foster belonging. Its immersive affect operates through contradiction: monumental yet ephemeral, historical yet mobile, mournful yet alive. ‘for Mecca’ is not a precious object. It is generous, communal, and open to interpretation.” Photography by Cory Dewald @corydewald