Englewood Art City

Our design aims to reactivate the Englewood community by making the artists’ community hub while nurturing creative jobs. Englewood is one of the low-income and disadvantaged neighborhoods in south side of Chicago. The neighborhood has lost about a half of population since 1970s, and has been suffering from various social problems, including a high crime, poverty, unemployment, and low accessibility to basic services. 

According to U.S. Census, 46.6% of households in Englewood is below poverty and 28% of people 16 years of age and older are unemployed. Also Sinai Community Health Survey in 2017 found that about 40% of residents in West Englewood have physical and mental health problems especially obesity, while they do not have access to health care. There, providing the access to fresh food, transportation, and daily services by using existing and new urban spaces is crucial in this community redevelopment plan.

Therefore, this project uses the arts and cultural amenities as a catalyst of local economic revival in the community to create more local jobs, consumptions and human interactions on the street. We are in the process of designing follies as nodes (anchors) of future commercial and social programs, including artists’ live/work studio, church-café, urban farm, affordable housing, co-op grocery and clinic, which hopes to reconcile a sense of community and vibrant street life in the neighborhood. 

In 2019, we plan to engage directly with community members and create speculative building projects for possible typologies.  We are excited to develop this meaningful work in the year to come.