Home / Impact Stories / North Lawndale
North Lawndale Collaborative Framework
Community-led art making creates a more livable, walkable, and vibrant stretch along a historic Chicago corridor.
A Legacy of Civic Power.
North Lawndale, a historic neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, has long been a hub of civic engagement and cultural pride. Since the 1960s, it’s been a northern base for the Civil Rights Movement and a predominantly African American community. But decades of disinvestment left deep scars—loss of residents, businesses, and public services.
Today, North Lawndale is reclaiming its future through a network of community organizations working across housing, health, education, public safety, and the arts. And along the 16th Street Corridor, a new chapter is unfolding.
Art as Activation
In 2024, the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot received a grant from the City of Chicago to launch Reimagining 16th Street—a community-led artmaking initiative that brings together artists, storytellers, designers, and photographers to explore the past, present, and future of the corridor.
The goal? To create a more livable, walkable, and vibrant stretch of 16th Street, aligned with the community’s 2018 Quality of Life Plan.
Listening, Learning, Leading
With support from the Design Workshop Foundation, the Lawndale Pop-Up Spot hosted events, distributed surveys, and facilitated conversations with residents and local organizations. These efforts gathered insights and built trust—ensuring that the community’s voice shaped every step of the process.
The result is a Collaboration Framework that documents existing efforts, identifies catalyst sites, and highlights opportunities for future development and programming.
Looking Ahead
The University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Urban Planning and Public Administration will build on this work, integrating findings into its studio curriculum and supporting long-term implementation.
This is what it looks like when art, design, and community come together to shape a neighborhood’s future—one story, one block, one collaboration at a time.