LINDSEY FEOLA

We developed the idea of townsquareness early in our research and made a few conclusions about the successful town square and townsquareness.   First, a successful town square is tied to and defined by the social and cultural interactions that happen within it, adjacent to it, or in some manner connected to it.  Second, townsquareness is beyond place: it is more about the networks, connections, and interactions that can happen in a given context.  Finally, townsquareness is not a universal or precise concept: it manifests itself differently in different contexts.

We believe that ground up urbanism has the potential to transform and enhance existing underutilized public spaces.  This type of intervention relies on grassroots action to change the quality and character of a place.  This social force has the potential to act as a foundation for rebuilding the neighborhood by creating connections between people and giving them common identity and recognition of similar social needs and desires.  

Our intervention has always intended to combine the ecological and urban built environment with programmed events to build community.  However, in light of recent events and news, we also feel the need to directly address the issues of safety in Bronzeville.  The lack of safe public places directly impedes building community and the development of townsquareness. Although we identified safety as a prerequisite early on, our preliminary research took this concept for granted.  Our developed intervention focuses on this fundamental human need.

Finally, a key component of our proposal for Bronzeville is an iconic gesture unlike anything else in the city, or even the world.  This plot of land is one of the few left available for an intervention of such massive scale.  This move will create and reinforce community identity and also extend the reach and notoriety beyond the neighborhood and immediate area.  

Team at Gensler: Emily Bernstein, Gail Borthwick, Nina Charnotskaia, Lindsey Feola, Neil Long, Chirag Patel, Michael Pecirno, Elva Rubio,Matthew Wang

THE IMAGE OF THE CITY 

“Chicago is a global city.”  This is a big statement, an expansive statement. Cities are shaped by their environment, their geography, and by human constructions, economy, commerce, and politics.  A city’s culture is shaped by the people who dwell in it, study in it and visit it. People are a city’s best resource and the best way to enhance or destroy it.  Chicago’s people (residents, students and visitors)  come from every region, but mostly from within the United States and more specifically from the Midwest region. The Chicago Expander seeks, in part, to define and reveal Chicago’s hinterland, itself considered the hinterland of the United States.  A hinterland of a Global City demands a new definition.  Historically large cities have relied on their hinterland for goods, agriculture and resources. This project defines Chicago’s necessary resources to maintain and advance its claim to the title of Global City as its people. Chicago needs to attract more people. The city has had a contracting population since 2012 and a shrinking city is not a Global City.

Initially I wanted to reveal the divide between the official, sanctioned, Illinois and Chicago bureaus of tourism and a visitor’s, dweller’s and student’s actual experience of the city. This topic addressed one of the most obvious ways for Chicago to attract more people and to achieve the status of a “Global City.” As I studied these narratives, I realized that one isn’t the true image of the city and the other a false facade.  Both of these Chicagos are true Chicagos.  Chicago is in the middle.  It is ambiguous.  It is two-faced. Chicago doesn’t reveal its secrets easily.  This is the image of the city and what makes Chicago special.  One of the reasons that international tourists in the United States, cite for why they didn’t visit Chicago, is that it never occurred to them.  Chicago doesn’t stand out for many visitors.   They might only know half of the story. 

If one draws only from the media, Chicago is a veritable Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.  Image searches for the city paint it as a glittering metropolis on the lake – almost all of the images contain water.  News searches are dominated by violence, controversy and losing sports teams.  Chicago writer, Joseph Drogos referred to Chicago as a Janus city. He was speaking of its historical status as a gateway from the east coast to the west coast, afforded by its waterways, later its railroads, and today by its two busy airports.  But Chicago is a Janus city not only because it is a gateway, but because it is nostalgic & innovative, prairie wild & asphalt gridded. It is secretive & bombastic, it is a big American City pushed along by neighborhoods, named for, and often still defined by their immigrant populations.

Mayor Emmanuel has challenged Chicago’s Tourism arm, Choose Chicago, to increase the city’s annual visitors from 40 million to over 50 million.  This effort is focused both regionally and internationally.  Achieving the goal will bring $14-15B in associated visitor spending and approximately 35,000 jobs. Chicago is home to 588,000 foreign born residents, representing about 22% of the city’s 2.7 million residents.  The cover of Chicago’s official tourism guide boasts about Chicago’s neighborhoods, featuring among them, Lincoln Square, an historically German neighborhood and Wickerpark which has been an immigrant neighborhood since the city was founded; first for the Irish, then Norweigan and German immigrants and later Ukranian. The guide also steers visitors to shopping on Michigan Avenue, Navy pier and other enclaves where few locals ever venture on a weekend. The dichotomy between the scale, sound and smells of Chicago’s neighborhoods and the phantasmagorical experience of Navy Pier is Chicago. The image of the city lies in the in-between.  It takes patience to find it and many visitors, even regional visitors who come to the city many times never do. Chicago makes us work to know it and resists definition… It is a living thing, this city, oscillating, belying and surprising us.

1. Drogos, Joseph, “Where the Streets Stretch out Forever” makemag The Silver Colored Yesterday (blog) http://makemag.com/the-silver-colored-yesterday/where-the-streets-stretch-out-forever/

2. Janus is an ancient Roman, composite, obscure god who is associated with doorways, beginnings, and transitions. A usually two-faced god he looks to the future and the past. About.com

3.  Boston Consulting Group, City of Chicago , Final Compendium Report, July 2012

In the Year 2025, how will Work in the City impact and redefine our clients’ business, inspire their people and improve their company’s performance and culture?

Gensler Team: Gail Borthwick, Nina Charnotskaia, Cindy Coleman, Mark Colomb, Lindsey Feola, Chad Finken, Mandy Graham, Neil Long, Chirag Patel, Doug Tichenor, Josh Vitulli, Benjy Ward

Over the past few months, Gensler San Francisco’s EDU 2.0 group, a cohort of emerging designers, strategists and leaders in the education practice area, hosted a series of three roundtable discussions around the experiential learning trend and what it means for educational institutions and cities.

Project-based approaches to teaching have been disrupting the educational landscape for several years and many institutions have fully embraced experience-based curriculum; however, the built-environment has not kept up. This approach requires environments that encourage both self-guided and group learning, provide maker spaces and allow students to personalize their educational experience. Participants in the roundtable discussions included thought leaders and innovators from elementary education, high school, university and cultural institutions, as well as organizations involved in education for all ages. While our conversations varied due to the diverse participants, our question for all of the discussions was the same:

In a world where resources for learners are pervasive and abundant, where institutions may no longer play the role of primary purveyors of information, and abilities may be represented in ways different from the traditional diploma, what role will the institution of education play?

Our findings and commentary from the event can be found here

For a quick recap check out my blog post from the event