On Sunday, October 1, Docomomo US/Chicago will explore one of the most peculiar chapters in Chicago transportation and urban renewal history. North Ogden Avenue was once a major arterial street that was extended from Union Park to Lincoln Park at enormous expense and disruption in the 1930s. Thirty years later, the City changed their mind and began closing and redeveloping the Ogden Avenue footprint in stages starting in 1967.

The University of Illinois at Chicago Circle was created between 1963 and 1968 as an “instant campus” in response to major growth in college enrollment following WWII. Its Brutalist design by Walter Netsch and SOM became a nationally recognized model for other campuses across the country, even as it displaced thousands of neighborhood residents and sparked local grassroots protests through its program of urban renewal. This tour will start and conclude at the famed School of Architecture and include visits to the buildings and spaces at UIC that have delighted and frustrated users since the day they opened.