CONVERGE:EXCHANGE

Converge:Exchange is a platform, a moment, a place that stimulates connections between communities, activists and practitioners in Chicago who use design-thinking in their work; and fosters dialogue to aggregate knowledge, share resources, engage in a broader perspective, and develop more robust solutions to the social issues of the day. 

Converge:Exchange is Mike Newman, Monica Chadha, Rashmi Ramaswamy, & Ryan Wilson.

Michael Newman, SHED Studio
Mike has been an architect in Chicago for 14 years, and worked previously in Boston and Philadelphia. His work has focused on design innovation for issues of sustainability and affordability in housing and social justice projects. Other concentrations have been on constructability and professional practice topics.

Mike has worked for 12 years as Senior Associate at CAPA, a well-known Chicago architectural firm, on projects including affordable housing, community planning designs, commercial and institutional projects, and market rate developments. His work there most recently has been on inventive sustainable projects such as Tryon Farm, a 150-unit development in Michigan City, Indiana. Since leaving CAPA, Mike has designed a series of units of housing, and is currently working on several sustainable market rate projects.

Mike has also a keen interest in teaching, and has been Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago for the past 6 years, teaching design studios, building science and preparatory classes for architectural licensure. Previously, Mike taught at Archeworks, an innovative design school that develops solutions for projects focusing on social issues.

Monica Chadha, Studio Gang Architects, Adjunct Assistant Professor, IIT
Monica Chadha is an architect, educator and activist in Chicago whose work focuses on community-based participatory design, and public buildings. Monica is a Project Architect at Studio Gang Architects. Her professional work includes the College of Dupage Early Childhood Center, Champaign Public Library, University of Minnesota Duluth’s Civil Engineering Building and Kennedy King College (Chicago). With a strong interest in design education Monica is currently an adjunct assistant professor at Illinois Institute of Technology, where she has most recently co-taught a class focusing on housing and sustainable development in India. She has also taught interdisciplinary teams at Archeworks, where students come together to work on community and civic minded projects. Monica is involved in expanding the conversation about public interest design, and recently co-organized a conference in Chicago entitled Converge:Exchange, that brought together professionals, community groups and activists to share experiences about innovative strategies applied in local economies and the built environment.  Monica received a Masters Degree in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Bachelor of Environmental Studies in Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Canada. Monica was recently recognized as a 2010 Emerging Leader by the Design Futures Council and is on the SFI 10+1 Steering Committee.

Rashmi Ramaswamy, SHED Studio
Rashmi has been working as an architect in Chicago for 12 years, and has a diverse background in architecture, education and a strong personal interest in public housing issues and environmental.

Rashmi has worked for 9 years at McBride Kelley Baurer, a Chicago architectural firm, as project manager and Senior Associate. She has been involved in several projects in Chicago for non-for-profit t clients including a campus for at-risk teen youth, a transitional shelter for women, HUD 202 senior housing and a daycare facility. She has also worked on an assortment of faith based projects and has extensive experience with corporate clients including IBM and Wrigley. Her work at the Wrigley building has ranged between urban design/master planning, building restoration and preservation to tenant build-outs. These projects have given her an understanding of the complicated processes involved in securing funding and meeting regulations.

Rashmi has led MKB’s sustainable effort, and is a LEED Accredited Professional. At a personal level, she is committed to women’s issues and affordable housing. She serves on the boards of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, and archi-treasures, and is a member of USGBC, Chicago Chapter Programs Committee.

Ryan Wilson, Conservation Design Forum, Facilitator at Archeworks
Ryan is a storyteller, landscape architect, and community catalyst.  In 2007, Ryan joined Conservation Design Forum (CDF), a cross-disciplinary landscape consultancy committed to connecting people to healthy natural processes. During his tenure with CDF, Ryan has developed designs for playgrounds, parks, rooftops, neighborhoods, campuses, corridors, and watersheds. He is particularly fond of working in difficult, degraded landscapes that allow design engagement with wasteful assumptions regarding materials, users, craft, beauty, and maintenance.

When not on-the-clock, Ryan spends an awful lot of time implementing dinners, gatherings, performances, conferences, & conversations in his community. Ryan is a partner in Converge:Exchange, a platform for the open exchange of community-knowledge & design-innovation, and the director of the Seasonal Salon, an evening of storytelling in which citizen-experts share stories with an audience of the interested & interesting. Ryan is an alumnus of the University of Georgia’s College of Environment & Design and Archeworks.  He grew-up on a post-agricultural farmstead in the Southern Piedmont of Northeast Georgia. This piece of land holds the origins of his fascination with food, play & the culture of landscapes.