Chicago, Illinois / Established 2013
ChiLab StudioMaterialProblem Solving
Artists, architects, and designers bring us a drawing, a model, or a hunch. We turn it into a buildable object, finish, assembly, or installation.
ChiLab Studio is an atelier for project development and artisanal fabrication. The work moves between studio thinking, shop discipline, and industrial coordination.
Metal casting and finishing. Cast, slumped, and fused glass. Patina. Digital modeling. CNC, 3D printing, fabrication, installation, and project management.
Studio
Specialty material projects for architecture, interior design, public art, and the fine arts.
Contact
Chicago, Illinois
Index
Press
- 2025 NBC Chicago
The city's own special tulips take center stage on Mag Mile - 2025 The Magnificent Mile
Signature tulip returns for the 2025 bloom season - 2024 Chicago Sun-Times
Butterfly sculptures land across the city with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum - 2023 FOX 32 Chicago
Chicago communities use artistic expression to highlight climate change - 2023 City of Chicago, DCASE
O'Hare Terminal 5 expansion, the largest acquisition of work by Chicago artists in thirty years - 2021 Chicago Tribune
Uber Freight opens its global headquarters at the Old Post Office
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Make it Cool, Make it Real.
Project development, specialty material fabrication, and installation for work that has to survive scale, weather, code, schedule, and scrutiny.
Materials
Bronze, aluminum, iron, glass, marble, steel, light, finish, and the shop drawings that hold them together.
Featured project
Four hundred and fifty feet of wall in Terminal 5, and nearly six hundred convex aluminum discs charting two centuries of immigration to Illinois.
- Project
a murmuration - Type
Public Art - Place
Chicago, IL - Material
Zinc plated steel, anodized aluminum
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Selected Works
Public art, architectural elements, restoration, glass, furniture, and lighting. Work produced with artists, architects, museums, developers, and private clients.
All work
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Capabilities
One studio holds the chain from concept development through engineering, mold making, casting, finishing, coordination, and installation.
- Metal castingSand casting, lost wax, lost PLA, resin bonded sand, match plate patterns. Bronze, aluminum, iron.
- GlassKiln cast glass, lead crystal, slumped and fused glass, cold working and polishing, architectural lamination with partners.
- FinishesHot and cold patina, plating and anodizing coordination, custom color development, outdoor rated coatings.
- Digital fabricationParametric modeling in Grasshopper, 3D scanning and reverse engineering, CNC routing and machining, in house 3D printing.
- Metal fabricationWelded and machined assemblies, architectural stairs and screens, structural coordination with engineers of record.
- RestorationDocumentation of historic profiles, reproduction of missing ornament, code and ADA upgrades that keep period character.
- Project managementBudgeting, prototyping, mockups and samples, shop drawings, permitting support, sequencing, and site installation.
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Studio
ChiLab Studio is a Chicago-based project development and fabrication studio working across art, design, architecture, and public space.
Founded in 2013, ChiLab Studio was built around a collaborative approach to making, bringing together art, design, engineering, and fabrication under one roof. The studio works with artists, designers, architects, and institutions to develop and realize ambitious projects, particularly those that demand close attention to material, process, detail, and execution.
Recent
- Tulips on The Magnificent MileMay 2025. Five tulip sculptures installed along Michigan Avenue with The Magnificent Mile Association and CNL Projects, timed to the city's annual spring bloom.
- Flight of Butterflies opens at Peggy Notebaert Nature MuseumMay 2024. Twenty nine monumental butterfly sculptures placed across Chicago, from the Magnificent Mile to neighborhood parks, each finished by a local artist with fabrication support and studio space from ChiLab.
- Gensler
- Studio Gang
- KNOLL
- Sterling Bay
- Uber Freight
- SKIMS
- Santiago Calatrava
- DCASE
- Chicago Department of Aviation
- Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
- The Magnificent Mile Association
- Office of the Architect of the Capitol
- Driehaus Museum
- The Renaissance Society
- Perron-Roettinger Studio
- CNL Projects
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Contact
We take on commissions on a per project basis. Tell us what you are trying to make.
Studio
Chicago, Illinois