Southern Commercial Avenue Gateway/The Underline
Introduction
The Underline is a Southern Commercial Avenue Gateway Plaza initiative connecting the South Chicago Community on the north and Vet’s Park to the south. Currently, this strip of viaduct on Commercial Avenue from 93rd to 95th Street, is a dark post-industrial landscape which is both intimidating to pedestrians and a blight of the surrounding neighborhoods.
The Talking Tree
South Worx Art Group founding artist Derric Clemmons has created a design for a sculpture and its settings that includes benches and a landscaped area with a rock garden as the centerpiece for the new plaza. Collectively named “The Talking Tree”, the project will launch an initiative to create a safe, attractive, and engaging space underneath the Chicago Skyway.
The goal is to transform a dark space into a shared inviting space for community members to gather and exchange ideas. Connecting the two sides of the community breaks down barriers, creating a space that will allow for increased programming by multiple community organizations from South Chicago and Vet’s Parks.
Local Artist Derric Clemmons along with GCI and the Chicago Public Art group will be conducting community outreach Spring and Summer 2022. Please contact GCI for more information.
Video
History
Spring 2017 architectural students at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) put their planning and design skills together in an effort to bring beauty, life and culture to a space mostly forgotten in the urban landscape.
The students participated in a 10-day ideas competition from January 26 to February 9 that drew more than fifty students paired into thirteen teams. Each team was tasked with designing a new public space under the Chicago Skyway to act as the southern anchor to the South Chicago Commercial Avenue corridor.
Student Design
Student design proposals (downloadable PDF below) were intended to transform the unused site along Commercial Avenue under the Chicago Skyway into a visible and active public space. This new space is designed to act as the southern anchor to the South Chicago Commercial District, the focus of the “South Chicago’s Commercial Avenue Revitalization Plan,” and is an instance of residual infrastructure dead space needing to be transformed from a wasteland into a rich public zone. Students were expected to be visionary in scope, but retain a degree of feasibility. Most importantly, the students were challenged to find a way to bring value to vacant space and enhance the life of the community, both on the specific Underline site and across the commercial district.
Gallery
Students were able to share their ideas with community members, elected officials, and other interested parties at a community gallery opened on February 15, 2017 at the U.S. Bank on 92nd Street and Commercial Avenue. The competition was organized by the UIC School of Architecture in partnership with the South Chicago Chamber of Commerce/SSA #5, and the UIC Great Cities Institute.
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Currently the project team is conducting outreach to develop a community stewardship and governance plan for the site. If you would like to participate in this project and/or provide your thoughts and feedback, please contact GCI or fill out the form.
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Partners
Intro
SSA 5 is comprised of the Commercial Avenue shopping district in South Chicago. Special Service Areas are local tax districts that fund expanded services and programs through a localized property tax levy within contiguous areas. The enhanced services and programs are in addition to those currently provided through the City. SSA funded projects typically include but are not limited to: public way maintenance and beautification; district marketing and advertising; business retention/attraction, special events and promotional activities; auto and bike transit; security; facade improvements; and other commercial and economic development initiatives. The City contracts with local non-profits, called Service Providers, to manage SSA’s. South Chicago Parents & Friends is the Service Provider for SSA 5. Commissioners for each SSA district oversee and recommend the annual services, budget and Service Provider Agency to the City.
Intro
The School of Architecture at UIC promotes architecture as a cultural practice of organizing information, of intelligently identifying and deploying patterns—conceptual, visual, structural, behavioral, and material—in the world. The program prepares its graduates to project all scales of these spatial and organizational patterns through the systematic development of an aesthetic attitude, a technical confidence, and a theoretical opportunism.
Intro
Chicago Public Art Group is an internationally recognized coalition of professional artists working to produce public artwork with community involvement. For the past half-century, CPAG has created nearly 1,000 projects including murals, sculptures, earthworks, playgrounds, and mosaics, throughout Chicago and beyond. Its work is rooted in these principles: Everyone deserves to experience great art. Every community should have a voice. Art-making and public art encourage community investment.
Intro
South Worx Arte Group provides artistic inspiration to open, ‘challenged’ public spaces, to encourage intelligence and dialog through cultural symbols and direct positive message. It strives to bring business corridors and neighborhoods together to work collectively in improving the appearance of living as well as works with/encourages select, dedicated young people in the process of community engagement and positive influence.
Intro
Chicago’s 10th Ward is home to Hegewisch, East Side, South Deering, Altgeld Gardens, Slag Valley, South Chicago, and The Bush neighborhood. It is the only ward that borders Indiana and the largest ward in Chicago. The 10th Ward is diverse, with wetlands, industrial zones, and public parks. The ward’s main commercial corridors are Commercial Avenue, Baltimore Avenue, and Ewing Avenue. They are home to many family-owned small businesses.
Intro
Robert Peters is the Illinois state senator for the 13th district, which is in the city of Chicago. The 13th district borders Wrigleyville on the north and 95th Street to the south, Wabash Avenue on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. As a state senator, Robert Peters has championed the end of cash bail in Illinois after years of organizing around it before becoming a Senator. He just passed legislation that expanded worker protections for Black and Latino workers in temporary employment. He has championed investments in tourism, small business development, and education. He chairs the Labor Committee in the Senate and is Chair of the Senate Black Caucus. He is focused on environmental justice, racial justice, economic freedom, and public safety for all.
Intro
The City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) supports artists and cultural organizations, invests in the creative economy, and expands access and participation in the arts throughout Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. As a collaborative cultural presenter, arts funder, and advocate for creative workers, its programs and events serve Chicagoans and visitors of all ages and backgrounds and in diverse communities across our city — to strengthen and celebrate Chicago. DCASE produces some of the city’s most iconic festivals, markets, events, and exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Millennium Park, and in communities across the city — serving a local and global audience of 25 million people.