Staff News

Adam Kushabi, AIA, ULI Joins FitzGerald Associates Architects as Associate Principal
Adam Kushabi, AIA, ULI, has joined FitzGerald Associates Architects as an Associate Principal. Adam is an experienced architect and seasoned project manager who joins the firm with a proven track record of successful projects having worked as an Architect, an Owner’s Representative, and a Design and Project Manager. Most recently, he was a Principal Design Manager with Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California on one of the lands of the Shanghai Disney Resort
His portfolio includes high-profile domestic and international projects in a number of asset classes, including multi-family residential, retail, themed entertainment districts, workplace, master-planned communities and hospitality projects. He has led teams in the United States, Canada, China, and the United Arab Emirates.
Some of his recent notable international project engagements include Ferrari World, Yas Mall, Nareel Island Villas & Resort, and Khalifa University Masterplan in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E as well as Treasure Cove at Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China. He was an Interiors Program Manager on the podium of the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and a Design Manager responsible for more than ten significant redevelopment projects for General Growth Properties in the Southeastern United States. He began his career in Toronto, where he worked on numerous high rise condominium and shopping mall developments. In the Chicagoland area, he has been involved in adaptive reuse projects in the city and suburbs.
At FitzGerald, he will help to build on the firm’s mixed-use portfolio and pursue larger retail and entertainment commissions throughout the region. He has a passion for placemaking, retrofitting suburbia, and mixed-use retail entertainment centers in urban infill sites. He believes that “as folks return to inner-ring suburbs and look for more authentic experiences, designing the experience will become key to increasing retail sales. In addition—as big boxes get smaller and return to the urban infill sites, specialty retail becomes independent of department stores, and polished casual-cool restaurants and entertainment venues become mini-anchors—there will be more entertainment-oriented mixed-use retail districts opportunities, both locally and on a national scale.
He earned his Master of Architecture with a minor in Real Estate Development from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Bachelor of Architecture and Construction Management from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a Licensed Architect in the State of Illinois and holds a certificate from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the American Institute of Architects.
FitzGerald Leaders Participate in Planning Charettes for Wabash Avenue Corridor, Illinois Medical District
On November 13, Project Architect Peter Szczelina, RA, NCARB, AIA volunteered with the Chicago Loop Alliance to lead a team through the initial brainstorming phase of a series of charettes aimed at transforming Wabash Avenue. According to the CLA, once a thriving destination of commerce and activity, Wabash Avenue is a transformational opportunity in waiting. Resting between a vibrant State Street and the magnificence of Michigan Avenue fronted Millennium Park, Wabash can again rise to celebrate the iconic El and serve as a benefit to residents, visitors, tenants, property owners and investors alike. The group aims to support the rise of the downtown Wabash experience. The group is holding a series of high-level ideas charrettes focused on advancing retail, sense of place and sensory experience of this pivotal Chicago avenue. Future sessions will work to move the groups’ ideas forward and begin developing an actionable transformation project.
On November 21 and 22, Managing Principal Pat FitzGerald participated in a charette with the Chicago Central Area Committee to take a close look at prospective updates to the master plan for the Illinois Medical District campus. The Chicago Central Area Committee is a 50 year old civic group comprised of Chicago business and cultural leaders devoted to making Chicago a better place to live, work, visit, and conduct business and, building off of the success of the Chicago 2020 Plan—of which the CCAC was a key contributor—the group has turned their focus to the Illinois Medical District. A 560 acre special-use district just west of Chicago’s Loop and University Village neighborhoods, the Illinois Medical District is home to four major hospitals, several universities, medical research facilities, labs, a biotechnology business incubator, and more than 35 other healthcare-supporting entities—and is the largest urban medical district in the United States. The efforts of the group’s charettes are ongoing, and formal ideas are expected to be released to the public at a later date.
November Anniversaries
At FitzGerald, we are fortunate to have an expert staff with a long history in the industry and a great deal of tenure with our firm. This November, Staff Architect Ayala Teitcher and Senior Architect Edmundo Gonzalez, RA each completed their first year, Project Architect Richard Kasemsarn completed his second year, Project Architect Osvaldo Contreras, CDT completed his fourth year, Associate Principal Steve McFadden completed his eighth year, and Associate Principal James Broughton, AIA completed his 10th year as a member of the FitzGerald Staff. Thank you, Ayala, Edmundo, Richard, Osvaldo, Steve, and James—and congratulations.