1 Site Axon
A contextual color palate references the street art of the neighborhood.
Alfresco South Chicago
Project Description
The project seeks to evoke the neighborhood’s history through art while attracting patrons to local businesses and encouraging owners to take care of the sidewalks in front of their storefronts. Titled “Who Tells Your Story,” the project brings commissioned art, market stalls for local vendors, streetscape elements, planters, and performance spaces to the corridor. The corridor concept evokes the neighborhood’s history at every scale of the design. The design uses art and artisans to anchors tall vertical frames that reference smokestacks to mart stalls that reference the steel trusses that once cantilevered over the lake.
The goal is to create an inviting, walkable district that encourages residents to gather and stroll while reflecting local voices through art. Featuring four zones that house different types of activations, Alfresco South Chicago includes art stacks, mart stalls, seating, and ground graphics.
Photos ©Sarah Joyce unless noted ©Latent.
Project Details
- Date
- 2022
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Area
- 1 City Block
- Typology
- Placemaking | Urban Design
- Client
- South Chicago Parents + Friends
Partners
Wight & Company Architect of Record, Design Trust Chicago Design Fellow + Community Engagement, CDOT + DPD Project Facilitation, Berglund Construction General Contractor, Romero Steel LLC Steel Fabrication Mart Stalls, Surface Construction Ground Graphics, Derric Clemmons Artist
Awards
- 2024 MCHAP Cycle 5 | Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
Project Gallery
2 Site Plan
This intervention unites the entire block contextually through latent design.
3 Quadrant Detail
Formal + tectonic qualities of the intervention invoke history + place.
4 Mart Stalls
Reference the historical steel structures of the Calumet River bridges.
