2309 Place

Location: Chicago, IL

Type: Office, Commercial, Adaptive Reuse

Size: 5,050 SF

Status: Design Complete; Construction Ongoing

Role: Design & Construction - with Beehyyve

As the new headquarters of the South Shore Community Development Corporation (CDC), 2309 Place transforms a historic brick and terra cotta commercial storefront into a bright and energetic hub of entrepreneurial growth and empowerment. Originally designed to house five separate storefronts, the building’s rectangular plan is divided into five separate bays by a series of structural masonry walls. The redesign activates two of these bays with local commercial services—a nail salon and pop-up restaurant—and dedicates the remaining three to the South Shore CDC’s new office space, requiring strategic openings in two structural walls to allow for circulation around a central gathering space for board meetings, town halls, media workshops, and other activities supporting the CDC’s mission of facilitating community input into all forms of local economic development. By reactivating the blighted building and providing spaces for small businesses, 2309 Place serves as a leading example of the CDC’s commercial revitalization strategy for South Shore, with an initial focus on the 71st Street corridor.