Bronzeville

Widespread early 21st century demolition of public housing and institutions on Chicago’s near south-side left behind economically depressed neighborhoods and large swathes of underdeveloped land. Joel VanderWeele’s proposal would re-establish Chicago’s grid in the Bronzeville neighborhood, connect the neighborhood to the lakefront, improve neighborhood access to public transit —including a new “museum trolley” line on Martin Luther King Boulevard that connects near north-side Oak Street Beach to south-side Jackson Park and the University of Chicago— and incorporate a wide range of traditional Chicago building types to transform a collection of “towers in the park” into a dense, walkable, mixed-use neighborhood organized around a series of well-defined public spaces.