The Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards 2021

by Suzanne Hanney / photos provided by LISC

THE CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT AWARDS (CNDAs) of 2021 reflect the COVID-19 pandemic past and present, Executive Director Meghan Harte said at the June 2 event. “Some developments were created just in time to aid their community in time of stress, some to correct inequities. All were born out of a community vision.”

This year’s theme, “Renewal,” is also significant, said Mayor Lori Lightfoot. ”I can’t think of a more perfect way to describe how each [winner] has impacted our community.”

The CNDAs were established in 1985 to celebrate 77 of Chicago’s greatest assets – its neighborhoods – and the organizations that strengthen them, Lightfoot said. Post- COVID, this grassroots emphasis, “investing in residents through transformative projects so they can become agents of change in their own communities,” will be even more essential, she said. “The most important tool LISC brings is advocacy for the community that makes sure not only we as government are present, but listening. When we are listening to our people, we get closer to the essence of public service.”

Harte and the whole team at LISC, which sponsors the awards, had been partners with her team, Lightfoot said. “Your innovation and dedication has given us hope in our darkest days.”

Known informally as the “Oscars” of community development, the CNDAs annually attract more than 1,000 people for the presentations and networking afterward. Last year, Lightfoot said it was great to celebrate them virtually. This year, she said she was glad to come together online and in person for a hybrid event that included three COVID-safe watch parties at CNDA-winning venues. The in-person party was at the SALUD Center and virtual parties were at the North Side Lathrop Homes and the South Side 75th Street Boardwalk.

The event also gave a tribute to Richard H. Driehaus, who died March 9 at age 78 and who in 1998 initiated the eponymous award for architectural excellence that has since honored 72 projects in neighborhoods – not downtown. Driehaus grew up on the Southwest Side, where at age 13 he began collecting coins and then investing in the stock market. He eventually became an investment manager and then started his own Driehaus Securities in 1979 and Driehaus Capital Management in 1982.

“Richard’s vision and commitment to quality design for all Chicagoans has had an undeniable lasting impact on how community development real estate is considered and done in Chicago,” according to the program book. The CNDAs announced a yearlong celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Driehaus awards, with opportunities to tour the buildings and learning sessions with community partners and architects.

Driehaus told the City Club of Chicago in 2016 that “In New York I’m just another successful guy,” according to The New York Times. “You can’t make an impact in New York. But in Chicago you can, because it’s big enough and it’s small enough and people actually get along enough.”

Richard Driehaus

Driehaus Museum

RICHARD H. DRIEHAUS FOUNDATION OUTSTANDING NON-PROFIT NEIGHBORHOOD REAL ESTATE PROJECT AWARD TO ESPERANZA HEALTH CENTERS BRIGHTON PARK

Accepting the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Outstanding Non-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project Award for the Esperanza Health Centers Brighton Park, Chief Operations Officer Carmen Vergara said that the building became “a hub for health care that not only became a medical home but allowed us to respond to the pandemic with testing, vaccinations and so much more.” Expected to serve 10,000 people, the building instead served 40,000 in its first year.

Founded in 2004, Esperanza has four centers that serve a predominantly Spanish-speaking population, many of whom were moving south of Interstate 55 and the Stevenson Expressway, CEO Dan Fulwiler said. Esperanza did a lot of listening to see what health meant to their Brighton Park community and included a teaching kitchen and a playground in the project because many people had to walk 20 minutes to reach one.

Juan Moreno and his JGMA architecture firm took a longvacant corner at 47th and South California Avenue, and built a structure with a bright entrance, well-lit medical offices and exam rooms; a window-walled hallway leading to a community kitchen and large meeting room. There’s also space for social services provided by Mujeres Latinas en Accion.

Esperanza Health Centers Brighton Park

Esperanza Health Centers Brighton Park

RICHARD H. DRIEHAUS AWARDS FOR ARCHITECTURAL EXCELLENCE IN COMMUNITY DESIGN

THIRD PLACE TO CANOPY/ARCHITECTURE+DESIGN FOR OSO APARTMENTS

Jaime Torres Carmona, founding principal of Canopy/Architecture+ Design, said in his acceptance that the Driehaus Award is “one of the greatest architecture awards you can receive in Chicago.” He also credited the Chicago Housing Authority and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th ward) for the building that allowed neighborhood residents to remain near where their families have lived.

The five-story Oso Apartments at 3435 W. Montrose Ave. are housing in Albany Park for both singles and families. Built of preformed concrete and steel beams, it features yellow Juliet balconies that hide cooling systems. A complementary mural, “Community Diligence” by Miguel A. Del Real, begins at the corner entrance of the building and continues inside, to communicate the building’s connection with residents, community and nature.

Oso Apartments

SECOND PLACE TO HED, JGMA AND BKL AND FARR ASSOCIATES FOR LATHROP HOMES

Built in 1938, the Julia C. Lathrop Homes at 2000 W. Diversey were one of the first developments in the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) and now one of the last in its Plan for Transformation that began in 2000. Over a seven-year planning process, owner Lathrop Community Partners and the joint venture between Related Midwest, Heartland Housing and Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation combined public housing, subsidized affordable housing and market rate units on the site.

The project capitalized on Lathrop assets such as its Jens Jensen-designed great lawn and its connection to the Chicago River, the latter not previously emphasized; on architectural elements, such as its original windows, stair rails, coping, limestone surrounds on exterior doors and paved central courtyard.

The project began with 925 units of public housing, most of them vacant. The rehabbed Lathrop will have 494 market rate units (studios starting at roughly $1,000, plus one- and two-bedrooms); 222 affordable units and 400 public housing units. South of Diversey, bKL Architects built a six-story, 59- unit building.

Lathrop Homes

FIRST PLACE STL ARCHITECTS FOR THE WILLIAMS PARK FIELDHOUSE

Located at 2820 S. Dearborn St., the fieldhouse reflects a desire of residents of the nearby CHA Dearborn Homes for architecture that would stand up to that at the nearby Illinois Institute of Technology designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The Chicago Park District facility has outdoor play space that literally mirrors the community day and night with mosaic steel cladding. Inside the 11,200-square-foot structure is a 3,800-square foot wooden beamed gymnasium with spectator seating, two multi-purpose rooms and flexible spaces for exhibitions and events.

Luis Collado, STL Architects principal, said in his acceptance that the firm fosters young and old architects as equals and measures its success not individually, but as a team.

Williams Park Fieldhouse

THE CHICAGO COMMUNITY TRUST OUTSTANDING PLAN AWARD CLARETIAN ASSOCIATES FOR “WE’RE STEEL HERE!”

The U.S. Steel South Works plant employed 20,000 people until it closed in 1992, leaving behind vacant land, an underemployed workforce and robust infrastructure. “We’re Steel Here!” offers nine interlocking programs for affordable housing, arts, recreational space, workforce development, new commercial corridors connecting to Commercial Avenue and incorporation of its own waterfront.

Claretian Associates joined with Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) to purchase and save the former South Chicago YMCA at 3039 E. 91st St. Now known as the SALUD Center, the building contains 100 units of affordable senior housing, as well as the offices for Claretian, which will provide

case management. The rehabbed building will include a fitness center; a swimming pool and a gymnasium that can be used as an auditorium, as it was for the CNDAs. A New Homes for South Chicago program will reconfigure larger single-family homes into two-flats, to reflect the changing needs of the neighborhood.

We're Steel Here!

OUTSTANDING FOR-PROFIT REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT AWARD THE MICHAELS ORGANIZATION AND BRINSHORE DEVELOPMENT FOR 4400 GROVE

Over the past two decades of the CHA’s Plan for Transformation, The Michaels Organization and Brinshore Development “has unexpectedly but assuredly created mixed-income/ mixed-use developments that are handsome, well-built and welcomed by the neighborhood,” according to the CNDA program book.

Built with input from the Quad Communities Development Corporation and former CHA residents, the $37 million, 84- unit complex at 4400 S. Cottage Grove in Bronzeville will offer 25 market-rate units, 38 affordable units for people making 60 percent of the Area Median Income ($37,440 for a oneperson household, $42,780 for two-) and 21 public housing units, as well as a fitness center, a community room, on-site management and a central community courtyard.

The buildings will also offer 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail. A goal of the project was to expand opportunity for minority and “mom and pop retailers” and to pay homage to Bronzeville’s history as a mecca for Black businesses. At its October 2020 opening, 4400 Grove had letters of intent for all 12 storefronts, including two restaurants, with eight separate owners.

Bronzeville is one of 10 INVEST South/West neighborhoods, a City initiative to reactivate focal points for walking, shopping, transportation, services and other amenities. Cottage Grove is also a priority corridor in Bronzeville, especially adjacent blocks on 43rd and 47th Streets. The project received $7.2 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) from the City of Chicago, a $7 million loan from CHA, $1.9 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits that generated $17.8 million in equity, and more.

4400 Grove

4400 Grove

BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD OF ILLINOIS HEALTHY COMMUNITY AWARD FIREBIRD COMMUNITY ARTS FOR PROJECT FIRE (FEARLESS INITIATIVE FOR RECOVERY AND EMPOWERMENT)

Firebird Community Arts brought ceramics training to the South and West Side youth since the 1990s. Moving into its current location in East Garfield Park, Executive Director Karen Benita Reyes, Ph.D. said that youth ages 15-24 showed signs of severe trauma, such as gunshot wounds. In response, Firebird collaborated with Cook County Hospital and Helping Hurt People Chicago to create Project FIRE to help them process it.

One youthful participant said in a video during the awards event that he thought about his injury even when he was asleep but “when I make something, I can be that.” A young woman said that “glassblowing helps you keep your mind off whatever you had going on before. You have to focus on this piece.”

Glass blowing requires communication, collaboration and trust, because 2,000-degree molten glass can be dangerous to work with, said Pearl Dick, artistic director of the 501(c)(3) Firebird Community Arts, in the StreetWise Holiday 2020 Gift Guide (Vol. 28, No.47). “You can’t be distracted.”

Participants are paid minimum wage and spend their time either fulfilling orders for the product line or working on their own pieces. Their individual works are also for sale; the artisans receive 70 percent and the rest goes to the program.

The Healing Hurt People curriculum focuses on SELF: safety, emotion, loss and future, the four things disrupted when someone experiences acute or chronic trauma, Dick said. Project FIRE’s participants learn what trauma is, its effects on the body and how to cope with it. The young artisans spend three hours working with glass and a final hour in group psychoeducation.

Project FIRE

POLK BROS. FOUNDATION AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING PRESERVATION AWARD MERCY HOUSING LAKEFRONT FOR THE MIRIAM APARTMENTS

“When it comes to affordable housing, there is no more environmentally sound solution than housing preservation, but that’s not easy in rapidly changing neighborhoods,” said Polk Bros. Foundation Senior Program Officer Deborah E. Bennett. The Foundation started this award 12 years ago to reward nonprofits and for-profits that undertake this responsibility.

Located at 4747 N. Malden St. in gentrifying Uptown, the Miriam Apartments had been purchased 30 years ago by Lakefront SRO, which is now part of Mercy Housing, a preeminent national supportive housing group. At the time the building offered shared kitchens and baths to 66 women, some of whom had previously been homeless. One woman said during the awards video that she came there from Deborah’s Place in 1995 and wanted to return to the Miriam after its renovation because, “living in a neighborhood like this, you’re just like everyone else.”

Miriam residents participated in a design charette and have returned to new studio apartments, each with its own bathroom, kitchen, heating and air conditioning, and with a spacious lobby. Although the renovation cost $20 million, each resident will pay no more than $167 a month in rent because of federal subsidies that allow residents a choice.

The Miriam Apartments

WOODS FUND CHICAGO POWER OF COMMUNITY AWARD #CopsOutCPS

In presenting the award, Michelle Morales, president of the Woods Fund Chicago, noted that “determined young people brought a victory: the removal of police officers from Chicago Public Schools.” Their shared goal was to reallocate the $33 million used for police officers in schools toward young people’s development – whether for counselors or the arts – a campaign carried out on Zoom during the pandemic.

The young people also demonstrated in front of the Chicago Board of Education headquarters during meetings and in front of board members’ homes. Among roughly 13 allies were the American Friends Service Committee, Raise Your Hand Illinois, Black Lives Matter-Chicago, Pilsen Alliance, Southside Together Organizing for Peace, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Kinetic Youth Group.

“Having cops in schools is not about safety,” said leader Jen Nava in an awards video. “What safety really is, is community investment.”

“Police officers in schools is a school-to-prison pipeline,” said Jayy Jayy, another leader. He added that the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor brought more people to their cause than they had ever seen.

Accepting the award, Veronica Rodriguez of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council youth organization said her favorite chant is, “We keep us safe. Showing up means having a conversation about police in schools. There is absolutely no reason why the Board of Education should be giving millions to banks, surveillance and police. We need fully elected school programs, social workers, arts.”

In June 2020, the Chicago Board of Education narrowly voted down a proposal to take cops out of schools. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and district leaders then shifted the decision to Local School Councils (LSCs). By summer’s end, 54 schools had voted to retain police, 17 to remove them.

WBEZ noted that of the 17 schools that eliminated police, only two had predominantly Black enrollment: Phillips High School in Bronzeville (where CPS made the decision because there was no LSC) and Uplift in Uptown. At Simeon Career Academy High, 8147 S. Vincennes, which voted to keep them, Principal Trista Harper cited “a war zone around the corner from the school” and said she didn’t want officers unfamiliar with the students coming to the school if she needed to call 911.

Police costs to schools fell from $33 million in 2020 to $12 million this year, largely because there were neither students nor police in the buildings.

#CopsOutCPS

JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION CREATIVE PLACEMAKING AWARD GREATER CHATHAM INITIATIVE FOR 75TH STREET BOARDWALK ON RESTAURANT ROW

Presenting the award that honors play spaces that use art to animate public spaces, MacArthur Foundation Senior Program Officer Tawa Mitchell called the literal boardwalk on two blocks of East 75th Street “a bold experiment that worked” during the pandemic.

Famous East 75th Street restaurants include Five Loaves Bakery, Flammin Restaurant & Co., A&S Beverages, Harold’s Chicken #24, KMT Health Food, President’s Lounge, Lem’s Bar BQ, Original Soul Vegetarian, Brown Sugar Bakery, Frances Lounge, Mabe’s Deli, Dunkin Donuts and Margarita’s Pizza. COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions were cutting into revenue until the Greater Chatham Initiative (GCI), assisted by Ernie Wong of Site Design Group and RaMona Westbrook of Brook Architecture, replaced parking spaces along 75th between Calumet and Indiana avenues (203-328 East) with green recycled plywood. Brightly painted, the enclosed spaces encouraged safe outdoor dining, playing and performances late last summer through fall.

Stephanie Hart of Brown Sugar Bakery said that the pandemic was initially devastating but the first weekend of the boardwalk, her sales increased 30 percent.

GCI also scheduled six activities between Labor Day and Halloween that attracted 1,000 new visitors to the strip.

Accepting the award, GCI Executive Director Nedra Sims Fears said that people come from 25 miles away to enjoy great dining on East 75th Street. The family-owned restaurants employ 200 people and attract 200,000 people a year, according to www.greaterchathaminitiative.org, where reservations can be made.

The boardwalk is in operation again this summer because, as Fears said, “We Like to think of it as a placekeeping award. We took an asset – Restaurant Row – and made it better.”

75th Street Boardwalk on Restaurant Row

75th Street Boardwalk on Restaurant Row

CIBC EMERGING LEADERSHIP AWARD TO JASON ESTREMERA

Coming from a family of immigrant entrepreneurs in Cleveland, Ohio, Estremera became a banker because he felt that career would allow him to help people who used their own resources as his grandfather and uncles did. Instead, he found that the lending model meant “those who had, got more” and those who had not, got less – or nothing at all.

“The stories I heard from these folks opened my eyes to the inequalities and systemic oppression holding back so many people from achieving their full potential,” he said.

After completing his MBA, Estremera became associate director of the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development, where he helped people to start and grow their businesses. After seven years in 2020, he came to Chicago to head the Northwest Side CDC. During the pandemic, he and his colleagues have worked to help Latinx businesses apply for grants to survive, despite obstacles such as language, documentation and technology.

He is committed to the task going forward. “For so many, myself included, COVID-19 has reinforced the idea that a nation will not survive morally or economically, when so few have so much while so many have so little.”

Jason Estremera

RICHARD M. DALEY FRIEND OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD AWARD TO COOK COUNTY LAND BANK

The Cook County Land Bank Authority (CCLBA) is geographically the nation’s largest land bank, which works with municipalities and other partners to acquire properties through purchase, donation, forfeiture and other transfers; the CCLBA holds title and maintains them tax-free with the intent of conveying them “back to the market.”

Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer, who is founder and chairman of CCLBA, said that “one of the most important battles is how to maintain our neighborhoods to make sure people have a shot at a middle-class life. I don’t think we can do it without housing.”

The old system of tax and scavenger sales was too complex for homeowners and small developers, according to the CCLBA website. What that meant was that speculators swooped in and bought large swaths of property that remained vacant, and for which they remained unaccountable.

“The scavenger sale was a new kind of redlining,” Gainer said at the awards ceremony. “By eliminating these barriers, we can make sure the work is done by people who live there.”

Begun in 2013, the CCLBA has acquired 2000 properties, sold 1,000 and overseen or been involved in the restoration of nearly 1000 single family homes in Chicago and suburbs. Gainer said there are thousands of projects in the pipeline, by up to 600 developers, many of color.

Cook County Land Bank