Kris Lucius

Asked how he became interested in landscape architecture and urban design, Kris serves up an unexpected response: "As a cyclist, golfer and rower, I became aware of my sports as spatial experiences," he explains. "That fed an interest in landscape design. When I started understanding cities as landscapes, it was all I could think about." His enthusiasm for the urban landscape is evident, whether he’s marveling about his downtown Chicago walk to work ("the thrill of walking up Wacker Drive through the canyon of towers along the Chicago River") or a favorite apartment in Boston ("It had copper cladding and sandstone dragons over the doorways…dappled light flooded the rooms, which had vintage light fixtures and a working fireplace. It was perfect"). Kris even pays homage to his native city with his collection of items—Wagner Ware Magnalite, Conklin writing instruments—designed or built in Toledo, Ohio. "There’s a great legacy of pre- and early modern industrial design there," he notes. When Kris isn't designing the next great urban landscape, you can find him teaching students at the College of Architecture at Illinois Tech as an adjunct professor.