Black History Month at the CAC

Throughout February, the Chicago Architecture Center celebrates Black History Month with a suite of programming. We honor the importance of historically Black neighborhoods in the fabric of Chicago and look to the future of innovative design in these communities. Through public programs, exhibitions, tours, and special activations, there are many ways to thoughtfully engage in dialogue regarding Chicago's rich and complex relationship between Black and African Americans and the city's built environment.

Self-Guided Tours

Explore three of Chicago's thriving Black communities on self-guided walking tours through the CAC app. Performance Space in Bronzeville's Black Metropolis presents a selection of sites representing the history of--and continued emphasis on--musical performance in the community. The Obamas in Hyde Park highlights important locations in President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's personal and professional lives from 1992 until their departure for the White House in 2009. Modern Living in Chatham visits a selection of single-family houses built in the 1950s and 60s, when a group of Black middle-class homeowners commissioned architecturally significant residences that both celebrated the design principles of the Modern Movement while also emanating an ethos of Black Pride in the community.

Singer Pavilion: Honoring Legacy through Adaptive Design

On view at the Chicago Architecture Center will be an exhibition presenting innovative new ideas for activating the Singer Pavilion and surrounding Bronzeville Lakefront. Architecture programs at the Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee reimagined how to use the singular remaining building on the former Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood.

Public Mural by Langston Allston

On view from February through March will be a monumental mural by the artist Langston Allston. Installed on the façade of the Chicago Architecture Center at 111 E Wacker Dr, this work takes inspiration from Jacob Lawrence's series of “Builder” paintings, as well as the monumental murals of Diego Rivera, to represent a world where communities have control of the built environment surrounding them, to maintain and reuse in ways that suit their needs. A world where design protects and elevates people in innovative and empathic ways.

The mural uses the façade of the now demolished Michael Reese Hospital in Bronzeville as a backdrop. While the original structure is gone, there is still value in preserving its memory, both as a work of classic Chicago architecture & as the site of numerous globally significant advances in medicine. Michael Reese Hospital was created with the intention of serving all people through care and medical research.