Around Our Neighborhoods
If you’ve been driving through Englewood and portions of Washington Park, it’s quite possible that you have caught a glimpse of one of several vacant and abandoned homes painted in a single, bright color - pink, blue, yellow, green, purple. These “color theory” homes are the work of artist/architect Amanda Williams, who grew up in nearby Auburn-Grehsam and teaches at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The above video interview with Williams’ was just released as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.
The project grew from a desire to make these buildings more visible (not just something that fades into the background) and encourage a larger discussion about why particular spaces are valued - or not - and the larger socio-economic forces shaping the physical landscape of Englewood and other divested communities. In our perspective, the homes also represent one way that “blight” can be turned into “vibrancy” – albeit ephemerally as all the buildings painted have already been slated for demolition.
The homes can be found around the 5700 block of LaSalle (pink, blue in above photo), around 59th & Stewart (purple), and the 6400 block of South Wood (yellow, green). The homes on South Wood – just blocks from Harper High School – were painted with students participating in the “One Summer” jobs program. In discussing her work with the students with CBS Chicago, Williams noted that “art can be a way that communities can transform…The students can understand – even given whatever they feel, all the frustrations of their communities, or their lives – they can make a difference instantly.”
