UrbanLab

Specialties

Residential and commercial new building design; and, restaurant and café design.

History

Established in 2000.

UrbanLab’s design process is characterized by deep inquiry and collaborative exchange; design work is informed by intensive research and an experimental approach. UrbanLab strives to invent innovative, environmentally responsible design solutions and create spaces that establish healthy connections between people and their environments. Current architecture projects include the design of houses, commercial buildings, restaurants and cafes.

Meet the Business Owner

Martin F.

Business Owner

Martin Felsen, AIA, is a registered architect, and Principal of UrbanLab. Since 1996, he has taught design studios and urban/​environmental planning classes at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture.

Martin’s work and expertise in architecture and urban design has been highlighted in numerous publications, and he has received several honors for his work. He received the Dubin Family Young Architect Award in 2007 from the American Institute of Architects Chicago. Also in 2007 UrbanLab was named as the national winner of the History Channel’s «City of the Future» competition for a proposal titled «Growing Water.» UrbanLab won the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows Latrobe Prize in 2009, and UrbanLab’s architecture and urban design projects won recognition from the AIA in the form of design awards in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Martin was recently honored as a «Global Visionary» by Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ).