North Lawndale is one of the most architecturally eccentric and socially complex neighborhoods in Chicago, putting it on the cutting edge of some leading local and national trends in community development and revitalization. Lawndale, having transitioned from a largely Italian and Irish based population at its inception in the mid 1800s, emerged as a community largely dominated by a Bohemian and, nominally, Catholic population, particularly in the south end of the neighborhood. In the early 1900s, Lawndale transitioned again, rapidly becoming the third largest Jewish community in the world after Warsaw, Poland and New York City.
The strong Jewish presence began to animate much of the personality and architectural character of the neighborhood, with residents as notable as Golda Meir and Benny Goodman, and an architectural landscape with the largest concentrations of synagogues in the country, some of the first large theaters in the country, and exceptional cultural spaces such as the Jewish People’s Institute. The industrial infrastructure was second-to-none and included Sears Roebuck and Co. and Western Electric. Following World War II, the neighborhood began a slow, then rapid transition to become the first African-American community on Chicago’s west side. Notable residents included Dinah Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A community so chockablock with waves of migrants and cultures, Lawndale was a virtual cultural smorgasbord of ideas and intellectual ferment. It was a testing ground for ideas and activism around Zionism, Civil Rights, housing policies, industrial psychology and scientific management, community organizing and black power. It was a community in which the boundaries of capitalism were pushed by Sears, Roebuck and Company. Julius Rosenwald, one of Sear’s leaders, made a social and political statement with his philanthropy devoted to African-American artists, and the education of up to one-third of all African-American children in the south through the Rosenwald Schools. Sadly, Lawndale, and its west-side neighbor, Garfield Park, were heavily damaged by the social unrest following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Public policies at the national level also shifted resources away from central cities leading to significant disinvestment in communities around the country such as Lawndale.
Photos © 2011 by: Rick Hicaro,Jane England,Robert Kalnitz
NHS has identified a number of partners to help with its work in North Lawndale. In addition to all its significant social and historical assets, Lawndale has an incredible “built environment” that has been celebrated by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Burnham Prize in Architecture, and Places, a Forum of Design for the Public Realm. NHS launched its Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative® in North Lawndale because of the concentration of buildings with limestone facades, thus dubbing North Lawndale the “buckle on the Greystone Belt.” Supported by the Driehaus Foundation and the City of Chicago, the program seeks to utilize Lawndale’s unique assets as a platform from which subsequent development might be launched. These efforts generated significant attention and publicity, including the publication The Chicago Greystone in Historic North Lawndale. LEARN MORE…
Earlier innovations were launched in the neighborhood in an effort to enhance the neighborhood’s social and human capital. An Individual Development Account and Employee-Assisted Programs were piloted in the neighborhood. Affordable housing developments under the New Homes for Chicago model have been completed, and others are being developed to balance market-rate developments in the community that is being developed by for-profit developers. Several charter schools have opened in an effort to enhance the community’s educational infrastructure, including the LEED Gold certified award winning Power House High School, and Legacy Academy (K-8) that is supported by Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal, LLP.
North Lawndale’s unique cultural and physical assets, its proximity to Chicago’s Loop, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Illinois Medical District, and other institutions makes it a highly desirable location for investment, residentially and commercially. The opportunity to build new on developable land and the existing housing and commercial stock offers a highly compatible environment in which Lawndale’s existing residents can benefit from future development and new residents can be welcomed. It presents a rare opportunity to achieve the goals of achieving affordable housing with a mix of market-rate housing; to push the boundaries of sustainable and environmentally sensitive development; to encourage innovative and smart design that is integrated with historically significant housing and industrial infrastructure; and to learn from the myriad cultures that have called North Lawndale home. When the Chicago Architecture Club chose North Lawndale to be the site of the Burnham Prize competition in Architecture in 2006, it was clear that this is a community that will “make no small plans.” Chicago, and the county, can indeed “Learn from North Lawndale.”
