Living Tracks: Englewood Agro-Eco District and Nature Trail.

Living Tracks marked the beginning of a deep, place-based collaboration between the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), within the broader INVEST South/West initiative launched under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. What began as an academic inquiry quickly evolved into an active landscape project, with one student eventually serving as project manager for its real-world implementation.

The studio reimagined two disused elevated railway lines—threading through Englewood and Bronzeville on Chicago’s South Side—not as abandoned infrastructure, but as living civic armatures for justice, cultural memory, and community-led regeneration. Elevated on berms and retaining walls, these 2-mile-long corridors offered both spatial and symbolic elevation, reclaiming views, connections, and futures.

Through fieldwork, archival research, and participatory workshops organized by the Department of Planning and community leaders, Living Tracks foregrounded the land as narrator and catalyst. Projects embraced themes of ecological resilience, sustainable urban production, and cultural healing, translating speculative design into actionable frameworks.

The work directly informed public-facing processes, including two official Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in Englewood and North Lawndale. The studio’s contributions were later taken up by grassroots organizations such as the Bronzeville Trail Task Force and Grow Greater Englewood, transforming academic imagination into civic possibility.

What began in the classroom evolved into a funded reality—securing millions for Englewood, establishing the Agro-Eco District, and constructing the Village Plaza. Here, students become designers and project managers for Botanical City and Grow Greater Englewood, and a key contributor to the Mellon-funded Bronzeville Trail Landscape Initiative.