Q4 2025 President's Report

The Obama Presidential Center transforms Woodlawn

The physical components of the monolithic Obama Presidential Center (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects + Partners) are coming into view with a promised early summer 2026 opening almost here. One of the most significant cultural projects of the decade, it incorporates public art by more than 25 artists including a sculpture by Richard Hunt, a water feature by Maya Lin, painted glass windows by Julie Mehretu and a frieze by Theaster Gates. This will be a catalyst for continued investment in its surrounding neighborhoods, and the CAC’s Chicago Community Planning Academy is equipping neighborhood residents to guide that change in Woodlawn and South Shore. 

A long-term plan for downtown takes shape 

In November, the Chicago Plan Commission adopted the Chicago Department of Planning and Development-led Central Area Plan 2045, setting down more than 250 recommendations for local improvements to guide public and private investment in Chicago’s city center. The big idea here is to encourage more mixed uses in the downtown, including more housing, to spur a more vibrant city. In order for this to work, third spaces also need to be addressed; those spaces that are free and provide open space, greenery and ways to convene outside work or home. Perhaps there is an annual plan to achieve these goals where the public is included? 

Keep Chicago a Sports Capital

With multiple teams simultaneously pursuing new facilities or major development projects, the Chicago Architecture Center recognized the opportunity to rethink how we build neighborhoods with stadiums as an anchor and achieve a win-win for both teams and communities. Meant to be an inspirational summary of opportunities and the facts for stakeholders, communities and legislators, CAC published its findings in fall 2025, introducing “The Chicago Model” in the playbook “Win/Win: The New Game Plan for Urban Stadiums.”

City-led development delivers on community promise

Multiple City-led revitalization projects were completed or significantly moved forward in 2025 offering affordable housing to hundreds of families while foregrounding exceptional design and catalyzing public-private investment in historically disinvested neighborhoods on the city's South and West Sides. 

South Side

• Auburn Gresham Apartments (Ross Barney Architects) opened on 79th Street in April.  
• United Yards (DESIGNBRIDGE, LTD.) commercial and residential hub celebrated its grand opening in May in Back of the Yards. 
• Thrive Englewood apartments (Perkins&Will, DL3 Realty), the neighborhood’s first new family housing development in more than 50 years, opened its doors in September offering 80% affordable housing. 
• 43 Green rental residences (LBBA; Moody Nolan) completed phase two in Bronzeville. 
• Thrive Exchange apartments (KOO) are under construction in South Shore.

West Side 

• Humboldt Park Passive Living (LJC) is designed to be the city’s most prominent example of Passive House energy sustainability. 
• The Ave (KMW COMMUNITIES) mixed-use residential development in Humboldt Park broke ground in May. 
• Austin United Affordable Housing (Valerio Dewalt Train) topped out in December and will offer 78 mixed-income units. The development integrates the historic Austin Laramie State Bank Building (Latent Design Corporation), which is being restored to house a new bank branch, cafe, Blues Museum and office/coworking space. 

Transit-Oriented Development matures

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) places housing and retail development near where public transit is readily available. Re-densifying transit-served corridors can deliver housing choice and opportunity free of car dependency. Several long-term TOD projects bore fruit in 2025, some as a direct result of the City Council’s 2022 TOD ordinance and others occurring organically. The completion of phase two of the aforementioned 43 Green (LBBA; Moody Nolan) in Bronzeville adjacent to the 43rd Street Green Line Station and Grace Manor Apartments (Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects (JGMA)) near the CTA Pink Line in North Lawndale are two examples among dozens of additional TOD projects that are in progress across the city. The Chicago Architecture Center’s user-friendly Transit-Oriented Development exhibit lays out several permutations of TOD in process across the city. 

Transportation advances

• This summer, the Mayor and the Chicago Department of Transportation marked the 100th mile of new bikeways under the Johnson administration. In fact, Chicago reached 500 miles of total bikeways by year’s end, despite the federal government withholding the funds appropriated to support road safety and bike lane projects. The City has focused on high occupancy routes such as Milwaukee Avenue with a growing emphasis on low-stress routes as well, making enhanced bike infrastructure a silent success for the year.
• The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) secured federal funding for the Red Line Extension, which will add 5.6-miles from 95th Street to 130th Street and four new rail stations to historically underserved communities on the Far South Side. 
• The CTA’s Red/Purple Line Modernization (RPM) Project completed four new, fully accessible Red Line elevated stations on the Far North Side incorporating murals and mosaics from local artists, replacing the outdated Charles P. Rawson-designed stations of the 1920s. 
• Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law a major rescue package for the Regional Transportation Authority of Northeastern Illinois (RTA). In 2026, RTA will be replaced by the Illinois Transit Authority, creating the potential for a brighter future and more coordination among CTA, Metra and Pace.

Celebrating the City and our historic architecture

Exceptional adaptive reuse projects demonstrate how preservation can anchor community identity while accommodating contemporary programs and needs. 

• The Aspire Center for Workplace Innovation (LJC) gave new life to a shuttered elementary school in Austin. 
• National Public Housing Museum. The first-of-its-kind museum, founded by public housing residents themselves, is located in the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes, repurposed by LBBA Architects. 
• The Chicago Architecture Biennial, ongoing through February 28, brings new energy to this concept and leverages existing conditions and practitioners in the City to give this year a local grounding, a move we applaud. 
• Also supporting the local design ecosystem, Theaster Gates’ long-awaited conversion of the St. Laurence Elementary School into The Land School to nurture the arts opened this fall. 
• BandWith Chicago, which supports youth music education, repurposed the Loyal Casket Company building in East Garfield Park (LJC), continuing their service of the West Side. 
• And finally, check out the CAC video documenting the opening of Future Firm's Revolution Workshop, which opened this summer in an old manufacturing building across from Douglass Park.