Celebrating Community Resiliency: An Equitable Garden Transformation

Honor Award

Urban Design

Chicago, Illinois, United States
MKSK, Inc.
Client: Uptown United / City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development

Celebrating A Historic District’s Cultural Heritage

Located 6 miles north of downtown Chicago, Winthrop Family Garden is located in Historic Uptown Square - a Chicago landmark designated district.

Image Credit: MKSK/Uptown United
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Site Plan: Weaving Together the Heritage of a Diverse Community

The garden design represents the colorful and diverse tapestry of the Uptown community residents, woven together to form a strengthened community.

Image Credit: MKSK
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Creating a Flexible Space for Various Uses

The space’s layered design features 35 community garden plots, garden storage, several communal plazas, a vending shelter, and a performance area.

Image Credit: MKSK
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Welcoming and Inclusive Design

The design utilizes an existing collection of angled pathways to foster an inclusive, equitable common ground for community to gather together.

Image Credit: MKSK
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Reinvigorating an Existing Community Space: Before & After

Made possible through the Chicago Public Outdoor Plaza (POP!) Grant the garden now offers a vibrant, flexible space for the community to gather.

Image Credit: MKSK/Scott Shigley
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Garden Ribbon Cutting and Re-Dedication

The City of Chicago, Uptown United, and members of the original Winthrop family celebrate the garden re-opening on October 15, 2022.

Image Credit: Scott Shigley
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A Community Hub for Events & Programming

Today the garden is host to a diverse array of community programs and events such as children’s gardening workshops and community drum circles.

Image Credit: Christopher House Uptown/Uptown United
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Vibrant and Artistic Historic Representation

The story of the Winthrop families is brought to life in many forms; including silhouettes of the family members painted as a backdrop.

Image Credit: Scott Shigley
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A Resilient and Sustainable Garden Design

Sustainable design includes porous aggregate paving and elevated planters to aid in stormwater management and reduce heat island effects.

Image Credit: Scott Shigley
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Storytelling the History of Winthrop Avenue

Interpretive signage and a timeline tell the story of the Winthrop Family while contextualizing the garden’s past, present, and future.

Image Credit: Scott Shigley
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A Community Legacy Lives On

Several remaining members of the Winthrop Family have their own garden plots, along with a host of today’s community members.

Image Credit: Scott Shigley
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“

This fun, vibrant community space is centered on social equity and truly responds to community needs.

”

- 2024 Awards Jury

Project Credits

Brett Weidl, ASLA, Landscape Architect, MKSK

NeighborSpace, Project Owner

Uptown United, Project Operator

Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Project Operator

Human Scale, Community Engagement, General Contractor

ACGi, Electrical Engineer

Dis-placements, Storytelling Assistance

Maz Maiz Native Land Project, Landscape Contractor

Mauricio Ramirez, Artist & Muralist

Isabella Scott, Artist & Muralist

Paint the City, Artist & Muralist

Project Statement

The Winthrop Family Historical Garden is a reimagined community space celebrating the rich heritage, resiliency, and legacy of Black families who helped found the Uptown’s cultural diversity despite racial segregation. The garden honors this powerful legacy of unity in the face of adversity while bringing together, educating, and empowering the community today. Through an expedited engagement, design, funding and construction process, the renovation and transformation of the garden was realized over just five months. Since opening, this community-centered public space and ‘heart’ of the community has provided positive activation through neighborhood-based programming, events, local food production, learning, and gathering.

Project Narrative

Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood is known for its rich, dynamic history and its mingling of cultures and customs. However, pre-World War II land covenants and legal segregation listed the 4600 block of North Winthrop Avenue as Uptown’s only block where Black families could live. Partly as a result of this racism and outright segregation, the families who lived on Winthrop Avenue developed a tight-knit bond. They referred to each other as the “Winthrop Avenue Family,” and grew up surrounded by love and care of the members of their family on “the Avenue.” Oral history narratives with contemporary members of the family, reveal only the fondest memories of life on the block, their home. Although only one resident from those decades remain, the result was a large extended family that still gathers and refers to themselves as the Winthrop Avenue Family.

The prevailing stories of community establishment, growth, resilience, and fortitude inspired the original creation and dedication of the Winthrop Family Historical Garden. In the mid-2000s, through community engagement efforts, the idea of transforming several vacant parcels of land into a community greenspace on the narrow 4600 block took shape. The Winthrop Family Historical Garden was dedicated in the Fall of 2009 thanks to the leadership of Uptown United, along with several local leaders and volunteers. Yet 20 years after its initial dedication, the garden had become overgrown, no longer serving the community as originally intended. Furthermore, while the garden bore the Winthrop Family name, it did little to share the story and meaning behind that name.

Neighborhood desires for local food production and communal space following the pandemic in 2022 prompted the need to reinvest in this once beloved space. The development of a new design for the renovated garden held fresh opportunities to share the untold story of the Winthrop families while visually representing the community through the design; as individual threads, woven together, forming a rich tapestry rooted in the neighborhood through its past heritage and rich cultural diversity. Vibrant colors and patterns on the site are inspired by the featured facade mural by local artist, Mauricio Ramirez entitled, "Uptown in Bloom". Community garden plots shape the space and provide opportunities for local food cultivation in addition to featuring a central gathering space for community programming and activities.

The garden re-dedication in 2022 brought members of the original Winthrop family together to celebrate and reminisce about their childhoods growing up on The Avenue. They shared impactful stories from their lives and the rich purpose they had living together as a community within the Uptown neighborhood. Today, Uptown United serves as a key supporting organization, programming regular community events in the garden and managing the plots and regular upkeep. Whether visiting the garden for a community workshop, planting a new crop of summer vegetables or enjoying local music and food, Uptown residents can learn more about the Winthrop community legacy while carving out the true power of community in their own lives.

Products

Furniture
- Movable Tables & Chairs: Flash Furniture - Aaron Commercial Grade Metal Hightop Tables & Chairs in yellow
Irrigation
- Communal Water Supply/Hose Hook-Up
Lumber/Decking/Edging
- Local Lumberyard
Structures
- Modified Shipping Containers: ConGlobal
Water Management/Amenities
- Permeable surfacing: Compacted Aggregate – Local Landscape Supply
Soils
- Planting Soil: Local Landscape Supply
Hardscape
- Reclaimed Brick Pavers: Reclaimed and Repurposed from Pre-existing Garden -
- Original Winthrop Alleyway Pavers Surrounding the GardenConcrete Walks: Repurposed from Pre-existing Garden
- Compacted Aggregate: Local Landscape Supply
Lighting
- String Lighting: PLT Solutions Patio String Lights
Other
- Interpretive Historical Signage Panels: Rightway Signs (fabricator) MKSK (artist)
- Shipping Container Garden Sign: TFA Signs (fabricator)
- Garden Banners: Bannerville USA (fabricator) MKSK (artist) / Garden Planter Number Signage: MKSK (artist & painter)
- Shipping Container Mural: A’keem Mohammed (painter) MKSK (artist) / Artistic Ground Painting: Paint the City (painter) MKSK (artist)
- Large Scale Wall Mural: Mauricio Ramirez (artist & painter) / Small Scale Wall Mural: Isabella Scott (artist & painter)

Plant List

Plants installed at installation: Skyline Honeylocust, Creeping Lily Turf
Plants provided by the community: Rotating annual vegetables, fruits, flowering bulbs and perennials as installed by local gardeners. Some of which include: Tomatoes, Cucumber, Squash, Lettuces, Peppers, Miscellaneous Spring bulbs, Miscellaneous Perennials, Miscellaneous Annuals.