2005 Articles
Chicago Sun Times
Modern architecture is back in style in Chicago
"Experts say Chicago’s recent love affair with glassy contemporary architecture was rekindled two years ago when renowned architect Ralph Johnson of Perkins & Will designed Contemporaine, a 15-story modern sculpture of glass, grand atriums and unique balconies in the River North neighborhood."October 2005
New Homes
The Mod Squad
"In Chicago, perhaps no developer has co-opted progressive design as its merchandising strategy quite as aggressively as CMK Companies, which has hired some of the city’s most creative architects for its large-scale residential projects."October 2005 – Philip Berger
Architecture Magazine
Point of Departure
“At least one name stands in contrast: Colin Kihnke, a self-styled modernist entrepreneur who built Contemporaine (and is now working on two new promising buildings), believes equally in Chicago’s modern legacy as in its hives of design-attuned, moneyed cosmopolites. His residential projects, he exults, are individual opportunities to create a sculptural art form.”June 2005 – C.C. Sullivan
Residential Architect Magazine
2005 Project of the Year
“Not since the glory days of Modernism have high design and high-rise housing often coexisted. So Residential Architect’s 2005 Project of the Year, a sculptural high-rise condominium building in Chicago, stirred excitement – and a little envy – among the judges.”May 2005 – Meghan Drueding
New Homes Magazine
Condos with Personality
“Many of the adjectives an observer might use to describe 630 N. Franklin – light-filled, airy, clean-lined, modern – also apply to other condo developments by CMK Companies, but the new building under construction in River North clearly has a personality of its own.”March 2005 – Dan Schuyler
Chicago Magazine
Future World
“CMK Development, a Chicago company that has made a habit of developing forward-looking, contemporary-styled condo building, has another of-the-moment project going up in River North, not far from its distinctive and award-winning Contemporaine.”February 2005 – Dennis Rodkin
American Institute of Architects
Honor Awards for Architecture
“Contemporaine successfully mediates the varying scale and context with its sculptural tower and the articulation of its functioning parts. The jury liked that the building moves beyond Miesian forms to create a compositional expression viewed from every side.”January 2005 – Heather Livingston
Chicagoland Avenues Magazine
Award-winning, Trend-Makers
“What makes CMK Development’s residences truly exceptional is that while homeowners are able to live in an architectural masterpiece, they’re also getting a great deal, as the company is committed to finding ways to offer home buyers more for their money.”January 2005 – Penelope Biver