The City without a Ghetto: Housing Systems
A project by the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)
Mess Hall
6932 North Glenwood Avenue (Morse stop on the Red Line)
March 27-April 18, 2004
Opening party: Saturday, March 27, 1:00-5:00 pm
Hours: Thursdays 6:00-9:00 pm, Saturdays and Sundays 11:00 am-5:00 pm

An exhibition on the history, present, and possible futures of public and affordable housing in Chicago and New York City, including:

• Gautreaux v. Urban Renewal, a twenty-foot long timeline, takes the
  viewer through the monumental bureaucratic process begun in 1966 when a
  group of public housing residents and applicants in Chicago claimed
  that the location of their public housing projects violated their civil
  rights.
• NYCHA: Points of Interest, a film produced with high school students
  from City-as-School, examines public housing in New York City. Where
  did it come from? Who can live there? Why does it look the way it does?
  What are the issues facing public housing today?
• The Subsidized Landscape, an interactive diorama, shows some of the
  ways that the government uses money to shape the places we live.
• Housing Chicago, a reading room, features materials from organizations
  and businesses active in the development and discussion of public and affordable housing in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Mess Hall is a non-commercial space for collaborations, open-ended projects, curated events, exhibitions, workshops and more, located in Rogers Park.

The City without a Ghetto: Housing Systems is co-sponsored by the Storefront for Art and Architecture, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 committed to the advancement of innovative positions in art, architecture and design.

And please join us for a related public event:

Dismantling the Ghetto: Policy Prospects
with Alexander Polikoff and Henry Binford
The Chicago Architecture Foundation
224 South Michigan Avenue
Thursday, March 25, 2004, 6:00-8:00 pm
Free and open to the public

This program will introduce the story of the Gautreaux class action, initiated in Chicago in 1966, and its continuing relevance to attempts to residentially desegregate American communities.

Alexander Polikoff, Senior Staff Counsel at Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, served for 35 years as lead counsel in the Gautreaux public housing litigation. He joined BPI one year after its founding in 1970 as Executive Director, a position he held for almost 30 years. Before that he was a member of the Chicago law firm of Schiff Hardin & Waite. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees (the latter in English Language and Literature) and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. He has published a book, Housing the Poor: The Case for Heroism, and is currently completing another book on the Gautreaux class action.

Henry Binford is an Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University specializing in suburbanization in the 19th century and the decline and redevelopment of cities in the 20th century. Professor Binford received his Ph.D. from Harvard, and since 1990 he has held a joint appointment in African-American Studies. His research centers on the evolution of cities, especially in America. He is the author of The First Suburbs: Residential Communities on the Boston Periphery, 1815-1860, and is working on a study of the evolution of slums.

Dismantling the Ghetto: Policy Prospects is co-sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, CUP, Mess Hall, and the Built Environment Workshop of the University of Chicago Art History Department.

About CUP
CUP is a nonprofit design and research organization dedicated to the understanding of architecture, urbanism, the physical environment, and social processes. Since 1995, CUP has organized and produced exhibitions, publications, discussions, and educational programs on topics such as Governors Island, building codes, street trees, the African Burial Ground, urban development, and architectural education. Ongoing projects address risk management, business improvement districts, international financial institutions, and municipal waste management. Please visit us at www.anothercupdevelopment.org.