ProjectHOOD

Contributors

Location

Chicago, United States

Website

www.projecthood.org

Norman Teague is a Chicago-based designer and educator who focuses on projects and pedagogy that address the complexity of urbanism and the history of communities. Specializing in custom furniture that delivers a personal touch and unique aesthetic detail, Teague's past projects have included consumer products, public sculpture, performances, and specially designed retail spaces. He works with common, locally sourced building materials and local fabricators to create objects and spaces that explore simplicity, honesty, and cleverness that relates to the culture of the client and/or community.

Pastor Corey B Brooks Sr. is a businessman, a philanthropist, a mentor, visionary, and founder of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, an urban, non-denominational inner-city church on Chicago’s south side (currently welcoming over 2000 members). Affectionately known as the HOODologist for leading impactful community efforts to address the educational, economic, social, and spiritual ills that burden inner-city communities, Pastor Brooks has made national and international news for his unconventional, yet effective stance against the senseless killings of young people by gun violence.

Negin Moayer is a licensed architect, design director, and founder of BNMO Design. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and has been living and working in Chicago since 2006. Moayer has worked on large national and international projects architectural design firms, such as Perkins+Will, Chicago, and HGA, Milwaukee. In 2015 she founded BNMO Design. Moayer’s vision is to create a holistic approach to promoting inclusiveness in the context of the built environment, including buildings that adapt and are resilient to climatic challenges.

Woodlawn Canopies; Stories and Futures

Venue: Project H.O.O.D.

Project H.O.O.D. (Helping Others Obtain Destiny)—an organization based in the Woodlawn and Englewood communities—offers job training, essential resources, and tools to empower community members to become peacemakers, problem solvers, leaders, and entrepreneurs. Norman Teague Design Studios and BNMO Design joined Project H.O.O.D. and New Beginnings Church to construct an installation, Woodlawn Canopies; Stories and Futures, on a vacant lot along the commercial corridor at 6600 South King Drive.

The vacant lot across from New Beginnings Church, where Woodlawn Canopies; Stories and Futures is located, encourages communal gathering, performance, play, reflection, historic references, and adventure. The site features an interactive workspace, stage, and exhibition space that showcases the history of Project H.O.O.D. Uniting all elements is an approach to design that brings about unique moments in spatial freedom. Activations that highlight local artists and community members began in Summer 2021 to invite community residents into the space. These events also showcase the work of Project H.O.O.D. that is by and for the Woodlawn community.

The proposed future home of the Project H.O.O.D. Leadership & Economic Opportunity Center, the design and activation of the lot calls attention to the organization’s long-term vision of responding to the many social, economic, emotional, and educational needs that the South Side of Chicago has been struggling with for decades. The design is an attempt to bring refreshing, yet modest, color to the existing monotonous character of the stretch of King Dr. in Woodlawn. It is also meant to provide bright, airy, vivid, and fun interior spaces for the Project H.O.O.D.’s main constituency—young people.

Thank you to Knoll and the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at UIC for their generous support.

For more information about how you can support the work of Project H.O.O.D please click here.

Past Works