The Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards ceremony that was held last Thursday to honor a year’s worth of forward-thinking urban development. Crain’s has a brief writeup on the winners; read on to learn more about the winning projects, organizations and people.
Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Strategy of the Year: Lawndale Christian Development Corporation
Richard Driehaus Award for Outstanding Non-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project: The Center on Halsted
Outstanding For-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project: Rancho Verde (part of the larger Chicago GreenWorks eco-industrial park)
Special Recognition Award: St. Leo’s Campus for Veterans
Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Architectural Excellence in Community Design
First place: Solid Ground housing facility
Second place: Pacific Garden Mission
Third place: Margot and Harold Schiff Residences (formerly known as the Near North Apartments)
Friend of the Neighborhoods Award: Richard H. Driehaus
Norman Bobins Leadership Award: Carlos Nelson, executive director of the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation
Carlos Nelson is probably one of Auburn-Gresham’s greatest assets.
You can learn a bit about his background and his passion for his community in our YouTube interview with him, and tour a part of his neighborhood on our YouTube playlist.
LCDC is one of our clients at my political strategy/public affairs day job, it was a thrill to see them honored at the CNDAs. Though maybe the bigger thrill was watching a small, mixed-race group of protestors meekly start to yell and protest about Harris Bank’s location decisions for new branches. They interrupted the Pacific Garden Mission award–but only briefly.
If you don’t have the conviction to keep talking when you’re trying to interrupt a major event–or have a bullhorn, for that matter–why bother? While they were sheepishly escorted out, I realized from the empty seats next to me that they had been seated at my table.
Never a dull moment in Chicago community development.