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comment Neighborhood Development Awards Recognize Chicago Projects
The Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Chicago, a nonprofit focused on community development, has announced the winners in the 2008 Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards. Started in 1995, the awards program recognizes leadership and architectural excellence in community development.
Photo © Doug Snower
Mercy Housing Lakefront’s Margo and Harold Schiff Residences were awarded third place in the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design.
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“The projects being honored today have already improved the quality of life in the neighborhoods where they have been built and also serve as community anchors with the potential to be a catalyst for future development,” said Mayor Richard M. Daley. “They are perfect examples of how partners working together can help rebuild and revitalize a neighborhood—store by store and block by block—so that the lives of all Chicagoans are improved.”
The jury for the leadership awards rated applicants on the development process, organizational effectiveness, community impact, and project or organizational challenges. For the architectural-excellence awards, the jury based its decisions on the quality of each project’s design within the constraints imposed by funding and regulatory agencies, the project’s contribution to the comprehensive development of the community, and the extent to which the project can serve as a model of design for developments in other neighborhoods.
Some of this year’s winners are described below.
- The Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Strategy of the Year was awarded to the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation, which has played a key role in developing a new public art corridor, a community technology center, and a 125-unit housing complex.
- The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Outstanding Nonprofit Neighborhood Real Estate Project was given to Center on Halsted, a 100,000-square-foot LEED Silver community center serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and the surrounding Lakeview community. The project, which also includes key donor and anchor tenant Whole Foods Market, offers mental-health counseling, telephone hotlines, supportive spaces for youth and seniors, and below-market-rate office space to build the capacity of small organizations.
- The Award for Outstanding For-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project was given to Chicago GreenWorks for Rancho Verde, Chicago’s first LEED Platinum development and the headquarters for Christy Webber Landscapes, a landscape design, construction, and maintenance company. The 18,000-square-foot project, built on the former site of an auto pound and an illegal waste dump, features a green roof, solar panels, and a bioswale drainage system.
- The Special Recognition Award was given to the Catholic Charities Housing Development Corporation for its work on St. Leo’s Campus for Veterans, which provides veterans with housing, social services, and medial care.
- The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design was given to three projects. First place was awarded to Landon Bone Baker Architects for La Casa Norte’s Solid Ground Supportive Housing Building, a renovation that provides housing in the neighborhood of Humboldt Park to 16 formerly homeless young men. The building also includes computer resources and a multipurpose space. Second place was awarded to Stanley Tigerman for the Pacific Garden Mission, a 150,000-square-foot shelter that feeds up to 2,000 meals per day, houses almost 1,000 people per night, and offers counseling services and employment training. The building makes use of dual-flush toilets, a green roof, and solar-thermal panels, among other green features. Third place was awarded to Murphy/Jahn Architects for Mercy Housing Lakefront’s Margo and Harold Schiff Residences, a five-story building housing low-income residents. The project features a range of green strategies, including extensive daylighting, a roof-mounted wind turbine, solar water heating, and graywater reuse.
More information about the awards program as well as all of this year’s winners is online at: www.lisc-cnda.org.
Summary: The Local Initiatives Support Corporation of Chicago has announced the winners in the 2008 Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards, started in 1995 to recognize leadership in community development as well as architectural excellence in neighborhood-based development.
This article was produced by BuildingGreen, Inc.- www.buildinggreen.com
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