Join us for a conversation with three of Chicago’s preeminent voices on public space in the city, Lee Bey, Blair Kamin, and Laurie Petersen.
Collaborators on the new book Who Is the City For? Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago (The University of Chicago Press, 2022), Bey and Kamin are joined onstage with the editor of the AIA Guide to Chicago, Laurie Petersen. The three are known for their deep understanding of Chicago’s successes and failures in architecture and urban design.
Chicago’s architectural legacy includes a civic ideal that has produced prized public spaces. Yet for many of the city’s Black and Brown residents, these spaces were—and, in some cases, continue to be—inferior to spaces used by white and affluent Chicagoans, and gentrification near new public spaces has made adjoining neighborhoods unaffordable for many longtime residents. Moderated by Executive Director of American Institute of Architects Jen Masengarb, the conversation explores the past, present, and future of the public use of Chicago’s built environment.
This Dialogue presentation is organized by Daniel Atkinson, Manager of Learning, Adult Interpretive Programs, and Otez Gary, Curatorial Assistant, in collaboration with the Chicago Humanities Festival.