chicago URBAN OPEN competition
This project seeks to engender these few consolidate Chicago lots with a comprehensive “density” of iconography, activity, program, landscape, and architecture. This “density” can be instigated by executing a few select architectural + landscape tactics:
1) Bifurcate the site perpendicular to Van Buren Street
2) Re-grade the site to position the high point (+42”) at the bifurcation line
3) Place the “Community Structure” at this demarcation line and high point. The area to the west of the structure is the gathering area and the area to the east is allocated for community gardening.
With the completion of these moves, the site hosts programmed area of community gardening and a public gathering space with a unifying skeletal structure.
The community structure, an artifice of community unification, then can serve its multiple purposes: a stage backdrop for the performance stage established with the grade change, a storage facility for community events, gardening supplies, and potential performance/theatrical supplies, a community canvas for art, and ultimately the icon of the neighorhood.
