About UrbanLab
UrbanLab is an architecture and urban design firm founded by Martin Felsen and Sarah Dunn. UrbanLab blends design and research to produce progressive, site-specific buildings, spaces and places. Our projects set in motion new lifestyles, vibrant spatial experiences, and more sustainable environments. UrbanLab’s projects span scales, from large urban designs to small residential projects. Our primary interest is in forward-looking projects that speculate on a more resilient and resourceful tomorrow.
UrbanLab brings invention and collaboration to each design project. We view challenges as opportunities to create memorable buildings and places that are both beautiful and surprising. We routinely assemble talented multidisciplinary teams with the highest levels of expertise and experience to realize architecture and urban design projects. Our design process is characterized by deep inquiry and collaborative exchange; design work is informed by intensive research and an experimental approach. We strive to invent innovative, environmentally responsible design solutions and create spaces that establish healthy connections between people and their environments. Built work to date includes mixed-use commercial buildings, housing, houses, restaurants, art galleries, large-scale resilient infrastructural projects, recreational landscapes, and cities.
The practice has been recognized nationally and internationally. Awards include first prize in the History Channel’s City of the Future Competition, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows Latrobe Prize, and many AIA Chicago design awards. In 2010, the Architectural League of New York named UrbanLab as an Emerging Voice. UrbanLab exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 and 2012, and in the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015 and 2017. UrbanLab’s work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
UrbanLab is a member of HCD, a network of international partners who have collaborated together for the last 20 years. Our partners head architecture and urban design offices dedicated to innovation and excellence, with a track record of success. Each office maintains an individual style and cultural identity, bringing the richness of diversity and multiculturalism to the partnership, while our offices share a common dedication to the highest standards of creative thinking and project delivery.
Leadership
Martin Felsen
Martin Felsen, FAIA
Martin Felsen, FAIA, co-founded UrbanLab with Sarah Dunn. He is a registered architect in Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, and New York. He was educated at Virginia Tech (B.Arch), and Columbia University (MS-AAD). Martin is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Professor in the Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) College of Architecture.
After working for Eisenman Architects, Stan Allen Architects and 1100 Architects in New York, he and partner Sarah Dunn established UrbanLab, an architecture and urban design firm. UrbanLab aims to synthesize diverse methodologies, technical innovation, and hybrid vocabularies drawn equally from architecture and its complex urban and natural contexts. Built work to date includes houses, housing, mixed-use buildings, restaurants, installations, and urban infrastructural projects.
Martin received the Dubin Family Young Architect Award in 2007 from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Chicago. Martin’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally. Awards include first prize in the History Channel’s City of the Future Competition, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows Latrobe Prize, and many AIA Chicago design awards. In 2010, the Architectural League of New York named UrbanLab as an Emerging Voice. UrbanLab exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 and 2012, and in the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015 and 2017. UrbanLab’s work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and MoMA PS1.
Sarah Dunn
Sarah Dunn
Sarah Dunn co-founded UrbanLab with Martin Felsen. She was educated at Columbia University (B.Arts and M.Arch). Sarah is a Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She also teaches advanced studios at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
After working at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam, she and partner Martin Felsen established UrbanLab, a collaborative architecture and urban design firm. UrbanLab strives to respond to the complexity, growth and unintended consequences of the modern city by developing a catalogue of architectural, infrastructural and urbanistic design strategies, in particular examining natural and artificial systems underpinning the built environment. Built work to date includes mixed-use commercial buildings, housing, houses, restaurants, art galleries, large-scale resilient infrastructural projects, recreational landscapes, and cities.
Sarah’s work has been recognized nationally and internationally. Awards include first prize in the History Channel’s City of the Future Competition, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows Latrobe Prize, and many AIA Chicago design awards. In 2010, the Architectural League of New York named UrbanLab as an Emerging Voice. UrbanLab exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 and 2012, and in the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015 and 2017. UrbanLab’s work is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and MoMA PS1.
Christopher Groesbeck AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
Christopher Groesbeck has over 40 years of professional experience with an expertise in the design of public assembly spaces and mixed- use developments for corporate and institutional clients both nationally and internationally. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois in Champaign. His professional work has won numerous awards including the prestigious ULI Global Award of Excellence for the Wabash Tower at Roosevelt University in Chicago. His built work is published internationally and is represented in the United States, the EU, the Mideast, Asia and South America. He is licensed throughout the United States. He focuses on the future of cities and the integration of infrastructure, open space, and mixed-use buildings to create long term health, economic activity, and social justice for people worldwide.
Chris is a former Principal at VOA Associates where he designed several award winning projects, and where he founded VOA Beijing. Before VOA, Chris worked with I.M. Pei and Partners in New York City. His professional involvement includes memberships in the AIA, Urban Land Institute and the Strategic Advisory Board for the Chicago School of Real Estate at Roosevelt University in Chicago.