At the invitation of the City of Chicago Department of Environment, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) through its City Design Center, (CDC) organized a series
of Green Neighborhood Design Studios during the 2006- 2007 academic year to address the challenge of sustainable urbanism. Three University of Illinois academic departments offered Green Studios: the Urban Planning and Policy Program; the School of Architecture at UIC; and the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). All five studios examined a common area of the Garfield Park neighborhood. This area, which covered over two square miles, had a mix of industrial and business districts, older residential housing stock, and the park- an open space amenity that draws many visitors from other parts of the City and region.
