Blog

By Ellen Shubart, Class of 2006

Living in an historic building — University Commons, the residential rebirth of the former produce market in the West Loop — only heightens CAC’s Managing Editor Jessica Cilella’s appreciation of architecture and her delight in working to create the Chicago Architecture Center’s brand.

A professional journalist with a degree from Loyola University, Jessica oversees the production of the Member Magazine, all of our organization’s printed materials including maps and brochures, and the content for the CAC website. Having worked for the Arlington Heights-based Daily Herald, Jessica finds this job fits her better. “I love serving people and helping them increase their love for history, architecture, and Chicago,” she says. “I’m using the same skills — writing, editing, and story-telling. It is a perfect fit.”

Cilella is part of what she calls a “small but mighty marketing team,” each with their individual roles, but working together to create the products. The marketing team, under the direction of Marketing Vice President Lori Kleinerman, is “always busy,” Cilella notes. “We’re busy in waves — it is a quarterly wave of busy-ness.” The group is always thinking ahead; if nothing else, the Member Magazine deadline pushes people to think ahead, she says.

Jessica found the move to 111 E. Wacker Drive mind boggling. “All of a sudden CAC took over our lives,” she says. “It is different than before. Now we have to look at CAC as a whole — a tour organization, an educational leader, and a museum.” This poses the problem of how to communicate with people. Brand awareness is key: the look and feel of the materials must be “instantly recognizable; they say who we are.” So the message must be clear, concise, and makes sense within five seconds of time.

Born in Oak Lawn, Jessica grew up in Homer Glen. But her fraternal grandparents lived on Chicago’s Taylor Street. They moved south when the University of Illinois at Chicago expanded, razing the largely Italian immigrant neighborhood. Both parents are Chicagoans, her mother from Englewood and her father from Wrightwood. He worked as a carpenter, another link to Cilella’s love of the built environment. She has two younger siblings, a brother, 23, and a sister, 19. Cilella and her husband, Dr. Jonathon Zinkel, an emergency medicine resident, live in the same area her grandparents left so many years ago. “I’m walking in the same district,” she says. Jessica and Dr. Jonathon have been together for more then 13 years, first meeting at the Lockport High School. “We were childhood sweethearts,” she says simply. They have been married for two years.

The couple loves to travel, and Jessica talks fondly of a three-week European trip to Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In the U.S. they have traveled to Miami, Arizona, and taken road trips around the East Coast.

While admitting to missing journalism, Jessica left the field because there is little future growth. She began her journalism career as an intern at WGN radio. Her favorite Chicago building is the Tribune Tower, and she remembers walking through the doors to the spectacular lobby with its rousing exhortations to free and open journalism. “I hope they keep the lobby,” she says about the adaptive reuse of the building into condos. (According to published reports, the developers will reopen the lobby.)

In January, Cilella was already deep into the Spring Member Magazine. She’s also reporting on the anniversary of the 111 E. Wacker building and the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Michigan Avenue Bridge. She’s always looking ahead.