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Communities Lead, Communities Succeed The Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards 2023
from August 2 - 8, 2023
COMMUNITIES LEAD, COMMUNITIES THE CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT AWARDS 2023
by Kyra Walker & Suzanne Hanney / photos provided by LISC Chicago
The 29th annual Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards (CNDA) on June 22 showcased community leadership that resulted in better communities from Jefferson Park to South Chicago, from Englewood and Auburn Gresham to Logan Square.
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) established the CNDAs in 1994 to honor top community development projects, architectural achievements and individuals from across the city. The ceremony began with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s keynote speech, followed by the awards ceremony. According to LISC Chicago Executive Senior Director Meghan Harte, “The CNDAs are centered around uplifting the essential role community, public, and private partnerships have in community buildings in Chicago-area neighborhoods. This year’s theme, ‘Communities Lead, Communities Succeed'; reflects power that comes when Chicago communities set their own neighborhood vision and lead practices and investment to advance their shared goals.”
The award winners represent leadership, vision, passion, and dedication of so many partners. The CNDA winners include:
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Non-Profit Real Estate Development: Full Circle Communities for 5150 NORTHWEST HIGHWAY APARTMENTS (1). “We designed the buildings to meet a lot of people’s needs – from veterans to working families, to people with disabilities,” said Full Circle Communities Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development Lindsey Haines.
“When there isn’t a legacy of affordable housing, and you start to do it for the first time, there’s a lot of misunderstanding, fear and confusion,” Haines said of the mid-rise, mixed-income development, which is equidistant from single-family homes and the Jefferson Park Transit Center for both the CTA Blue Line and Metra. It is essentially the neighborhood’s “downtown.”
“We had to work past that,” said former Ald. John Arena (45th ward). “We had a lot of community meetings, we went door to door. This is a $26 million project and I give Full Circle credit for putting together the funding stack. There’s more developments coming because we broke through those barriers.”
Haines said the 60 affordable and 15 market-rate apartments have a lot of amenities: a game room, lobby, lounge, dog run, balconies for each apartment, supportive services and a partnership with the Veterans Administration.
“I was about to be homeless, with five kids. This is like a dream come true,” said Julia Cisneros in a CNDA video. Cisneros said that since she was in the middle of a domestic violence situation and then a divorce, she and her kids took advantage of supportive services there.
The Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Plan Award: Palenque LSNA for the “HERE TO STAY, HERMOSA AND LOGAN SQUARE WEST QUALITY-OF-LIFE PLAN,” (2) a five-year plan established in October 2018 with the help of LISC Chicago.
Palenque LSNA Executive Director Juliet de Jesus Alejandre says, “The biggest challenges facing our communities are gentrification, displacement, and raising rents: You see wealth right next door to families struggling to eat.”
Hermosa and Logan Square have lost 20,000 Latinos in the last seven years. The forces behind gentrification are relatively inexpensive housing stock that can be bought cheaply and flipped for profit and also the 606 biking and hiking trail. From 2013, when the 606 broke ground, to 2016, property values, property values increased 48.2% in the LSNA planning area. LSNA led a Neighbors Against Displacement campaign that won a pledge of $1 million from the city for forgivable loans so that working class families can repair and upgrade their 1to 4-unit buildings. They were also able to stop demolition of some housing.
The Here to Stay trust – in which the community owns the land, but the family has the deed to a home – welcomed its first residents in 2023. Two more lots are currently being rehabbed.
The Outstanding For-Profit Real Estate Development Award: E.G. Woode L3C for E.G. WOODE ALPHA (3). E.G. Woode is a flexible real estate platform of business development that enhances businesses and communities by using a collective approach to provide technical assistance, extend opportunity, and stimulate growth. Due to a lack of traditional funders, the entrepreneurs formed their own development company. E.G. Woode Alpha used an innovative low-profit funding model that relies on collective ownership.
The space they created is now home to four businesses: Beehyyve architectural and engineering firm, Powell’s Barbershop, Marie|Wesley consignment boutique, and a branch of the Momentum Coffee chain. Marie|Wesley owner Nanette Tucker said she sees the boutique as not only a store, but also a social enterprise. She lets people put their work in her shop “because I want it to be that vessel.”
The objective was to create a viable development corridor in Englewood, said Beehyyve co-owner Deon Lucas. They wanted their building on the 63rd Street corridor to be not only attractive, but also reflective of the community, “so that no matter how often you drive down 63rd Street, this building would stand out,” board member Felicia Slaton-Young said. It features an outdoor garden where people can casually sit or dine.
The Polk Bros. Foundation Affordable Rental Housing Preservation Award: Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc. for SOUTH CHICAGO SALUD CENTER & SENIOR HOUSING (4). South Chicago Salud Center & Senior Housing is one of the six properties acquired by Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) from the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago in 2019. The 2021 renovations preserve 101 units of housing for seniors and people who are disabled in a nearly century-old building with amenities like a community cafeteria, day care center, laundry facilities, and much more. It’s also a community center: for after-school activities, business development, birthday parties and bridal showers, basketball. The center is less than 20 minutes from downtown, and is within walking distance of hospitals, grocery stores, and direct access to CTA bus stops.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Healthy Community Award: New Life Centers for Chicagoland for PAN DE VIDA FRESH MARKET (5). This award recognizes the successful community-based effort that addresses the health of a low-tomoderate income neighborhood in the Chicago metropolitan area. Many residents in Little Village face food insecurity during normal times. But when the pandemic hit, many turned to food pantries. Pan de Vida’s space is designed to celebrate Hispanic culture and the Little Village community. Pan de Vida is more than a food pantry, it offers leadership opportunities for young residents.
The The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Architectural Excellence in Community Design:
First place: MKB Architects for the AUBURN GRESHAM HEALTHY LIFESTYLE HUB (6). “The idea was to make the hub feel like a downtown office” near 79th and Halsted streets, says CEO of Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, Carlos Nelson. The neighborhood was a health care desert, but now the lifestyle hub is a primary and immediate care center serving everyone from pediatric to geriatric needs.
MKB’s extensive work includes natural light with new window cut-outs, an elevator shaft in the building’s center and preservation of the terracotta exterior.
“You’ve taken a 100-year-old building, poured in some love, and it has sprouted something as beautiful as a tree of health and prosperity in Auburn Gresham,” Nelson said.
Second place: LBBA for LUCY GONZALEZ PARSONS APARTMENTS (7). Lucy Gonzalez Parsons, a local labor organizer, believed collective action was a powerful tool to change a community. Its site is a former city-owned parking lot next to the CTA Blue Line at Logan Square. Since the site is between downtown and O’Hare, a parking lot was hardly the best use of the land, said Tyler Brown, LBBA principal.
The alderman felt pressure to do something about affordable housing and “the opportunity to do affordable housing next to a transit node was really meaningful, especially at affordable prices,” said Bickerdike Redevelopment Corp. CEO Joy Aruguete. The Equitable Transit-Oriented Development provides 100 units of affordable apartments and townhomes. Residents are currently working on a mural that will add community identity to the building.
Third place: JGMA for RICHARD J. DALEY COLLEGE’S MANUFACTURING, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING CENTER (8). The new building at Daley College was intended to be the center of manufacturing for the City Colleges of Chicago, said Juan Moreno, principal of JGMA. However, the stereotype for manufacturing was not positive, “so we had to change the narrative.” He did so by creating high bays bathed in light. The design created a gathering space where students would want to stop and to learn, where classes and large groups could gather around equipment for demonstrations, in a space large enough to change with new technologies.
“Manufacturing has changed from a dark, dirty, dangerous career to something clean, computer-driven, team-oriented,” said Daley College Dean of Advanced Manufacturing David Girzadas. “Careers in manufacturing are well-paying and stable. With the new contemporary design, the new MTEC structure shows students these careers are worth striving for.”
The CIBC Emerging Leadership Award: FELICIA SLATONYOUNG (9), executive director of the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce. Slaton-Young grew up in Englewood. But with decades of disinvestment changing the community, Englewood became a different place. In 2015, she founded the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce. “A chamber is about relationships and advocating for member’s interests. It’s important to really understand what they need so we can be helpful to them,” says Slaton-Young. Today, the chamber has 125 members, has helped 500+ entrepreneurs with direct programming, resources, or referrals, and given 63 businesses more than $780,000 to help them survive the pandemic.
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Community Design Impact Award: KATHERINE DARNSTADT (10) of Latent Design, EMMANUEL GARCIA (11) of Wheeler Kearns Architects and FABIOLA YEP (12) of Wheeler Kearns Architects. Katherine is the founder of Latent. Since the founding in 2010, she and her team designed new community centers with Boys and Girls
Clubs of Chicago and much more. Emmanuel (Manny) has worked with the North Lawndale Employment Network headquarters (NLEN), a non-profit that provides a second chance for those formerly incarcerated. He’s committed to elevating Latinos in architecture locally and nationally. Fabiola’s empathetic approach to design focuses on learning the core needs of the client from the get-go, and supporting them through the architectural process.
The Richard M. Daley Friend of the Neighborhood Award: GEORGE WRIGHT (13), CEO of The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. The Cook Workforce Partnership was created in 2012. It’s a non-profit organization that operates the largest public workforce system in the country. George Wright worked in banking and community investment. Post college, he spent his free time lifting up the places he came from. He says “I wanted to pave the way so it would be a little smoother for people coming after me.”
The MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative Placemaking went to the National Museum of Mexican Art's JARDIN MALINALLI (14) for a vacant lot across the street from the museum's Yollocalli Arts Reach. Youth in the program transformed it with a mural and, with the help of non-profit Human Design, added a stage. It's now a community space for birthday parties and mini-music festivals.
