ADAPTIVE OPERATIONS FIFTH BIRTHDAY! (observed)

WELCOME TO THE FOURTH ANNUAL ADAPTIVE OPERATIONS NEWSLETTER, IN RECOGNITION OF ADAPTIVE OPERATIONS TURNING FIVE! FOR THOSE KEEPING TRACK, WE DID NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THE FOURTH BIRTHDAY LAST YEAR. IT JUST DIDN’T FEEL LIKE ANYONE NEEDED AN ANNUAL NEWSLETTER AT THE TIME….? WE’LL GO WITH THAT. ABOVE IS A MONTAGE OF 9 THINGS THAT HAPPENED SINCE THE LAST ONE, AND BELOW FOLLOWS A HYPERLINKBONANZA DESCRIPTION OF THOSE THINGS….AND OTHERS!

Adaptive Operations bulked up a lil bit; that 100 year old synagogue project got a name, a permit, and is undergoing an overhaul into a net zero energy private arts club and multiple residential spaces; it also had all its embodied energy and materials indexed and got a few classes at UChicago taught with it; the southside brewery’s northside nano-taproom we designed (w/ Adi Goodrich) finally opened up; we made a lot of bespoke updates to a handsome Palmer Square two-flat; a very old balloon frame two-flat coach house in Bridgeport is nearing completion with a few new kitchens, porches, stairs, and lots of fun interior updates; we worked with a great local artist on their retrospective show at the DePaul Art Museum to create a radio station as sculpture for it (which then traveled to Omaha); another very old two-flat in Bridgeport got a very stealthy dormer/second floor added to it; the very first restaurant project AO did got an exciting makeover after a back of house flooring replacement kind of snowballed during the pandemic; a Bronzeville community organizing institution is planning an expansion and a cafe for seniors; a venerable art school and artist residency in Saugatuck, Michigan is planning an off-campus annex space in a 150 year old church/hall/gym/library building through a long term residency with AO.

Also, that contemporary Indian restaurant we designed a few years ago is getting a freshened up courtyard space; we’re working with a number of artists on their installations at the new ORD terminal; a tiny lil pizza spot in Westmont we worked on finally opened up; that incredible pizza & beer spot in Logan Square we did some interiors work on built an outdoor seating space we designed; that artist run space in an old social club in Pilsen finished up; we took part in a retrospective show at the Cultural Center called Successful Failures; another restaurant we designed a few years ago is getting an exciting pop-up restaurant in its private dining room very soon.

So yes, last year’s birthday went unacknowledged, but does anyone really remember their 4th birthday anyway? Partly it was because it was a really. busy. time. But also, marketing & communications are not high priorities for me. It’s something I grapple with as the owner of a creative business who is uncomfortable with the idea that constant, swift growth and upward expansion should be the default agenda for businesses. How to scale up is not an uncommon question posed to people who are interested in addressing through their practices the various challenges facing us and our environment. Positive impact probably doesn’t have the same exponential growth trajectory that capital does, and so maybe something more slow and sideways and horizontal is the way I want to think about having a positive impact with the work we do. Endless thanks to the people who entrust me to do this work with them and on behalf of them.

As for slowly growing, AO has two summer interns this year, in addition to Curt MacIver, so the plural pronouns used here are no longer a pretense! We all wrote some bios and Curt took our headshots - check it out.

So you keep checking the AO website for updates and new projects and it doesn’t seem to change for long periods of time, or maybe even hardly at all since the last newsletter? That’s the kind of few years it has been. If you want some updates, or to chat about what’s happening, drop a note to charlie@adaptiveoperations.com or follow AO on instagram for slightly more frequent updates. If you don’t want to get an annual update, smash that unsubscribe button below.