Skip to content

People

People

Steel Studio

Gary, United States

Website

Steel Studio is a multidisciplinary collaborative and creative studio developing ideas, projects, and partnerships that respond to community needs.

Steel Studio is interested in supporting various creative communities as a platform for innovation, experimentation, and interactions through the arts, design, architecture, citizen and stakeholder engagement, physical environments, material culture, storytelling, and social action.

Lauren M. Pacheco is a Mexican-American born and raised on Chicago’s southwest side. She is a civic practice artist and cultural worker with over fifteen years of arts administration, curation, and project management experience. Her background is grounded in social practice and public engagement with a personal mandate to responsibly and respectfully invest in targeted communities. Many of her projects are interested in space, people, and social impact. Today, Pacheco serves as a resource to policymakers and institutions in the public dialogue about issues that impact artists and creative enterprises. She is an associate faculty lecturer at Indiana University Northwest and a co-creative director at the Chicago Humanities Festival.

CAB 5 Contribution

Project Overview

The Gary Farmers Market

In 1975, Mayor Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana enlisted the Whitley and Whitley Architecture firm for a bold effort to transform an urban landscape into an area of opportunity. Hatcher with Whitley and Whitley envisioned an outdoor civic platform to expand the functionality of existing urban assets and generate new ways of thinking about how cities can resiliently and resourcefully respond to the increasing needs of their citizens. This included the Gary Farmers Market, an open-air market situated on a triangular plot bordered by Adams, 10th, and the “Adams Loop.” 

The disappearance of the Market in 1977 meant both the loss of a hub for social interaction and weakened efforts to address ongoing urban food insecurity. Steel Studio aims to revitalize the urban social potential of this historic project by taking up its legacy. Today’s Gary Farmers Market is an initiative that has the potential to reintroduce a mini urban park to Gary, providing a variety of private and public moments in the otherwise utilitarian commercial area. The Market can serve as an iconic urban structure of maximized potential with functional elements reflected by the people of Gary and the Northwest Indiana region.

Past Works

Project Overview

Venue

View more

Steel Studio (Gary, Indiana)

Description

We are a multidisciplinary collaborative and creative studio developing ideas, projects, and partnerships that respond to community needs.

Steel Studio is interested in supporting various creative communities as a platform for innovation, experimentation, and interactions through the arts, design, architecture, citizen, and stakeholder engagement, physical environments, material culture, storytelling, and social action.

We do this by:

>leveraging community assets.

>reflecting on memories + histories.

>tapping new creative territories.

>shaping new narratives.

>supporting innovation and entrepreneurial thinking.

>working with public + private sectors.

WE DO THIS BECAUSE: WE CAN. WE MUST.

Venue

View more

James R. Thompson Center

Address

100 W Randolph St., Chicago, IL, 60601

Neighborhood

The Loop

Description

Made possible by The Prime Group, Capri Investment Group, and Google, the James R. Thompson Center serves as a site for exhibitions and site-specific installations as part of CAB 5. Hailed as one of Chicago’s postmodern architectural marvels, the Helmut Jahn-designed building will open to the public through the end of the year.

The City is the Site