Recently I sent a letter to the Metropolitan Planning Council and the City of Chicago with my contribution to the River Edge Ideas Lab. The work of nine invited firms is currently being exhibited. I am concerned about the practice of 'invitation only' calls for designs dealing with public spaces. Independent small companies like mine are continually left out of these calls and the presumption that good ideas can only come from a few larger professional firms creates a limit of choice. In lieu of a more open, inclusive process I decided to act and see what happens.