Positioning Pullman: Collaborative Ideas Workshop for America’s Newest National Monument
Citation of Merit
Firm: AIA Chicago Regional & Urban Design Knowledge Community with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Client: National Parks Conversation Association
Location: Chicago, Illinois
The circa 1880 town of Pullman, now a Chicago neighborhood, provided the setting for the evolution of industrial manufacturing, the advancement of town planning, architecture, the foundation of U.S. labor law and the advancement of civil liberties for African-Americans. In February 2015, a Presidential Proclamation entrusted Pullman to the National Park Service.
Later that year, a technical team comprised of 40 volunteer architects, landscape architects, city planners, economists and engineers assembled to work with Pullman stakeholders to develop a roadmap for improvement and operations.
Following a large-scale community workshop, the team refined the material and identified 35 discrete projects with cost estimates and implementation responsibilities. This material was incorporated into an ideas book, which is now being used by the National Park Service, state of Illinois, city of Chicago and Metra, together with the private sector, to move forward. Jurors called the project “incredibly important.” One stated, “This brings the historic realm into a contemporary space; it is invaluable to Chicago and to the nation’s history.”