JUSTIN BANDA

Kathleen M. Kirby writes in Indifferent Boundaries that “Space, and where we are in it, determines a large portion of our status as subjects, and obversely, the kinds of subjects we are largely dictates our degree of mobility and our possible future locations.” This gallery is an attempt to deconstruct the experience of black artists in Chicago, and create an equitable space that propels it’s inhabitants forward in their art towards calmer futures.

We revitalized a diminishing, predominantly-industrial sector of Gowanus by introducing residential and recreational activities within the industrial business zone, in the form of a public plaza that overlooks the crux of the Canal. This area begins the use-desegregation by seeding light industrial types with mixed-use public interest areas, while slowing shifting to higher density industrial southward to face the reconstructed IBZ.

The decision to make Kanye West the focus of a Chicago-based museum in the Fulton Market district in the West Loop is a creative decision made simple by the mere fact that this city is his home, which he strings references to throughout his body of work. His beloved late mother Donda West moved her family from Atlanta to Chicago when Kanye was three, an event he describes on his track “Homecoming” as a formative experience:

I met this girl when I was three years old
And what I loved most, she had so much soul
She said, “Excuse me, lil’ homie, I know you don’t know me
But my name is Windy, and I like to blow trees.”
And from that point I never blew her off
People came from out of town, I like to show her off.
They like to act tough, she likes to tear them off
And make them straighten up their act
Cause she knows how they’re soft
And when I grew up, she showed me how to go downtown
In the nighttime her face lit up, so astounding
I told her in my heart is where she’ll always be.

West’s clear affection and profound respect for Chicago make him an ideal candidate for a gallery orbiting his life, work, and art.

The Canal was used in the 20th century as an industrial transportation route and dumping ground, creating an ecological disaster that remains one of the U.S.’s most severely contaminated body of water. In 2010, the EPA declared the Canal a superfund site, and cleanup began just this past September. The community is concerned that developers will purchase decontaminated waterfront property to gentrify industrial areas for residential use.

Use-based zoning has led to the creation of the types shown here. Mandating use and floor- area ratios has led to the huge floor-plate buildings you can see in the IBZ. Gowanus predominantly consists of open-interior buildings, shown in purple, and various residential types, shown in blue. Magenta here represents institutional buildings such as schools and churches.