Excuses

<p>The work of Chicago- and Cambridge-based architecture and design collaborative Norman Kelley begins with what already exists. Like tailors, they make measured alterations to buildings, interiors, furniture, and art.</p><p><strong><em>Excuses: Buildings and Projects by Norman Kelley</em></strong> gathers 16 of their projects completed between 2012 and 2025. They are presented as a flipbook of situational observations—or excuses—through recurring triptychs of technical drawings, casual photography, and critical captions. Norman Kelley offers its excuses as an alternative theory to adaptive reuse, towards a way of looking for place in the contradictions between past and present, wrong and right, old and new.</p><p>Contributions by architects and educators Jan de Vylder and Spencer McNeil and curator and researcher Irene Sunwoo reflect on Norman Kelley’s varied work, offering perspectives on practice, theory, and collaboration.</p>