LEE BEY
the urban observer... bio
Lee Bey is a respected Chicago writer, critic, professor and advisor on architecture and urbanism. He has
spoken before audiences at the University of Hamburg, the American Institute of Architects, the Arts Club
of Chicago and other esteemed institutions. In addition, his views on architecture and design have been
quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times and Architectural Record. His television
appearances include CBS 2 News Chicago, Fox News Chicago, Chicago Tonight and Chicago Tonight: The
Week in Review.

A adjunct associate professor of architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago, Bey created and teaches
a graduate-level course on how politics shape architecture and urban planning and lectures often on the
subject. Other speaking topics include the development and livability of cities; architectural preservation,
mass transportation and regentrification. He also discussed and the architecture of Chicago's historic
Bronzeville area and other African American neighborhoods around the U.S. His photography examines
the same issues.

Bey has also written for a variety of publications, including Architectural Record, Dwell, Preservation,
Architect, and Illinois Issues. A noted architectural essayist, Bey's work appears in Chicago Architecture:
History, Revisions, Alternatives, published in 2005 by the University of Chicago Press; Visionary Chicago
Architecture, published by the Chicago Central Area Committee in 2004; and 20th Century Chicago: 100
Years, 100 Voices, published in 2000. He is currently writing a book that examines unbuilt Chicago
architecture.

Bey was an award-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1996 to 2001, writing a
weekly, full-page column that examined architecture, urban design and preservation. From 2001 to 2004,
Bey served as deputy chief of staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Bey advised the mayor on
architecture and urban planning while helping shape the administration’s position on development,
lakefront protection, park construction and architectural preservation. Bey was director of governmental
affairs for the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill from 2004 to 2007.