Green canvas for community and creativity

University of Chicago Arts Lawn

Location	Chicago, Illinois
Client	University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life
Expertise	Community Collaboration, Inclusive & Accessible Design
Size	1 acre
Completion	2023

The University of Chicago’s Arts Lawn transforms a once-vacant lot adjacent to the Green Line Performing Arts Center into a vibrant community space in the heart of Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side. As part of the broader Arts Block along East Garfield Boulevard – an emerging arts and culture corridor that reimagines vacant lots as a network of artist studios, performance venues, retail, and community-focused spaces – the project contributes to the neighborhood’s cultural and economic vitality while supporting a growing hub of arts, education, and civic life.

Rooted in a strong university-community partnership, the Arts Block centers BIPOC voices and fosters inclusive cultural expression and creative opportunity.

Flexible Programming

The Arts Lawn is organized as a series of flexible, program-driven spaces that support a wide range of community uses. A mounded lawn functions as a sculpture garden, with concrete pedestals for rotating public art installations. This feature is framed by native plantings, meandering pathways, and a continuous circulation loop with integrated seating.

Collaborative Design

Central to the project is a youth-designed performance pavilion and a student-designed ground mural, both developed through a five-week Design Apprenticeship Program (DAP), a mentorship initiative that empowers young adults to shape the built environment. DAP participants collaboratively researched, brainstormed, and developed three conceptual pavilion designs, and went on to design and fabricate community garden beds and seating aligned with the selected concept.

Through this process, students gained hands-on experience in design and carpentry while directly influencing the site’s identity. The pavilion’s brightly colored, circular dance patterns extend into the ground plane and inform the Arts Lawn signage and branding, reinforcing a cohesive and expressive visual language that reflects the cultural vibrancy of the community.

Environmental Stewardship

The Arts Lawn exceeds the City of Chicago’s Department of Water Management's stormwater standards by capturing and managing all on-site runoff through native planting areas, bioswales, and rain gardens along the site’s edges. Educational signage and guided tours further highlight these sustainable strategies, fostering awareness and stewardship.

As part of the larger Arts Block, the project establishes a model for university-community partnerships. It advances the University of Chicago’s efforts to transform vacant parcels along historic East Garfield Boulevard into a cohesive cultural destination, while serving as a catalyst for social and economic investment in the greater Washington Park neighborhood.