Chicago
The Rebuild Foundation and Brinshore Development partnered to transform an abandoned public housing development into 32 mixed-income rentals and a new arts center. During the rehabilitation, the development team took four of the two-story townhomes and turned them on their sides to create flats, which included two ground-floor, handicapped-accessible units.
Four units in the former public housing development were demolished to make way for a two-story art center built of glass and steel. The center provides arts programming to the residents, the surrounding neighborhood, and students at the Shore FIne Arts Academy, an arts-focused charter school located across the street from the development.
The Rebuild Foundation was founded by Theaster Gates, a world-renowned artist and planner. One of the missions of the foundation is to reuse materials in interesting ways. Gates' studio recycled materials from the original public housing project and transformed them into railings, book shelves, tables, and benches that were installed into the new development.
The Rebuild Foundation has put three of the market-rate units under master lease to use for visiting artists.