Project

Reckoning with Vacancy

March 7, 2016

Project by David Schalliol.

Contributors

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 01

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

In Chicago, where one lives affects how one understands vacancy.

In many North and near Northwest Side neighborhoods, vacancy heralds the construction of larger and more expensive buildings, while in many South and West Side neighborhoods vacancy is the harbinger of yet another derelict lot. The result is that while many Chicago neighborhoods are maintaining—if not gaining—density, other sections of the city are increasingly sparse.

Reckoning with Vacancy grapples with these divergent conditions by concentrating on the city’s South and West Sides, where the last several decades have brought major changes to the built environment and the communities that constitute and inhabit it. From coordinated efforts like the Chicago Housing Authority’s Plan for Transformation to the more chaotic effect of the Great Recession’s foreclosure crisis, these events have dramatically affected the neighborhoods many of us call home.

While some of the resulting vacant properties are targeted for long-term development or are being winded through the city’s vacant property ownership programs, the majority of these parcels are in an ambiguous position: either informally maintained by community members or derelict and seemingly up for grabs. How are we to understand such sites, and how can residents and municipal planners work with them? This orientation also allows us to engage broader puzzles related to the city’s future, including which factors determine vacancy in our cities, how we might bridge disparate experiences of vacancy, and how we might understand the relationship between planning and informality.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 02

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 03

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 04

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 05

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 06

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 07

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 08

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 09

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 10

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 11

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 12

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 13

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 14

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 15

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Mas issue bold reckoning with vacancy 16

Reckoning with Vacancy, BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, CAB, 2015. © David Schalliol.

Comments