Blair Kamin

Blair Kamin is an American journalist and architecture critic. He was the Chicago Tribune architecture critic from 1992 to 2021. Kamin has held other jobs at the Tribune and previously worked for The Des Moines Register. He also serves as a contributing editor of Architectural Record. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1999, for a body of work highlighted by a series of articles about the problems and promise of Chicago's greatest public space, its lakefront. He has received numerous other honors, authored books, lectured widely, and served as a visiting critic at architecture schools including the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Background Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, Kamin is a graduate of Amherst College, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in 1979, and the Yale University School of Architecture, from which he received a Master of Environmental Design in 1984. In 1999 he was a visiting fellow at the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago. In 2012–2013, he was a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He holds honorary degrees from Monmouth University and North Central College. At North Central, he was an adjunct professor of art.

Prior to being the architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, Kamin served as its culture and suburban reporter from 1987 to 1992. He was a reporter and architecture writer for The Des Moines Register from 1984 to 1987. During his Nieman Fellowship, Kamin co-wrote and edited an ebook, "The Gates of Harvard Yard: The Complete Story, in Words and Pictures, of a Great University's Iconic Portals." The ebook was published by the Nieman Foundation. In 2016, Princeton Architectural Press published a paperback version of the book, "Gates of Harvard Yard." In 2020, Princeton Architectural Press published another Kamin book, "Amherst College: The Campus Guide," which presents six walking tours of the 1,000-acre New England campus. In 2026, Harvard University Press published a hardcover edition of "Gates of Harvard Yard."

Kamin cites as his influences Paul Gapp, Paul Goldberger, Lois Wagner Green, Ada Louise Huxtable, Vincent Scully, Allan Temko, and Joel Upton.

Kamin's 1999 Pulitzer entry in criticism consisted of four parts of the six-part lakefront series, plus six other works of criticism on subjects ranging from the renovation of the North Michigan Avenue Marriott Hotel to an addition to Chicago's Adler Planetarium. The Chicago Reader described the situation as one in which "every jury that read his stories wanted someone else to judge them". One of the criticism jurors described the dilemma "He seems to do some investigative reporting and some advocacy editorializing, and some members of the panel didn't quite know what to make of it. So we did the cowardly thing and sent it to another panel." In 2013, the Society of Architectural Historians recognized him with an award for excellence in architectural criticism. From 1993 to 2019, he won or shared 16 Peter Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism from the Chicago Headline Club. Kamin also was part of the collaborative team that won the 2003 National Magazine Award for General Excellence for the Architectural Record.

Selected works

Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age (University of Chicago Press, 2010)