Supportive Housing Program
Spring 2000
The Marcy Newberry Association (MNA) exemplifies the City Design Center's
community partners: MNA has been serving the needs of the near Westside
and Lawndale communities of Chicago for over 100 years. MNA develops,
manages, and operates several community-based programs, including education,
day care and Head Start programs, and supports housing services for the
elderly, people with disabilities, and homeless teens.
In the Spring of 2000, Marcy-Newberry requested the assistance of the
City Design Center to study the feasibility of a complex including daycare
for community children; housing for seniors, the disabled, and employees
of Marcy-Newberry; and elderly daycare for on-site residents. The intent
of the project is to integrate the various populations in a caring, supportive
environment that benefits all.
For this project, the City Design Center provided options for programming,
siting and financing the facility. The Center also researched both regulated
and conceptual guidelines for accessible housing design. Center faculty
and staff proposed design workshops in order to allow the community a
voice in designing housing units to meet their needs. In the spring of
2001, the Center conducted four design workshops with persons with mobility
impairments and their family members. In order to obtain different cultural
perspectives, two sessions were with Latino groups, and two with participants
from the African-American community. The workshop aims were: to explore
specific housing needs of people with disabilities that are perhaps unidentified
in the literature and guidelines, to involve people with disabilities
in the design and decision-making process, and to gather input from the
disability community to inform the architectural program and schematic
design of the supportive housing project. Finally, Center staff developed
an architectural program and schematic designs for the Marcy Newberry
Association Supportive Housing complex. The findings from the design workshops
along with the research the Center conducted guided the development of
the architectural program for this housing complex for families with disabilities.
Ben Kendrick, one of the community partners, expressed his satisfaction
with the progress of the project thus far, and his hopes for the future:
“This project is moving forward very well. The collaboration with
the UIC City Design Center is crucial to the continuing development and
implementation of the housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities,
which will also include a community-based daycare. This program will address
the cross-generational needs of this neighborhood.”
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Map of Chicago with project location
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City Design Center Affiliated Faculty
Tom Forman, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Architecture, and
Associate Director, City Design Center
Sharon Haar, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
Xavier Vendrell, Associate Professor, School of Architecture
Collaborating Organizations
Marcy-Newberry Association
Simpson Alternative High School
University of Illinois Medical Center
Funding
Fannie Mae Foundation
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
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