ECONOMIC RECOVERY ACROSS CITY BORDERS

MUSE led the development of One Howard Street, an inter-municipal plan that focuses on pragmatic short-term recommendations to set the stage for organic economic recovery. The plan’s 1.25-mile corridor includes the boundary between Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood to the south and the City of Evanston to the north and is the first plan that considers both sides of Howard Street.

Details

Client: Rogers Park Business Alliance + City of Evanston
Chicago + Evanston, IL
March 2023 – December 2023

Scope of Work

Economic development strategy
Community + stakeholder engagement
Graphic design
Urban design

WINNER OF THE 2024 APA-IL STRATEGIC PLAN AWARD

MEETING THE MOMENT

Despite its many assets and amenities, Howard Street’s potential has been stifled for decades. A car-centric streetscape, loss of naturally occurring affordable housing, and negative perceptions about public safety in the area, have contributed to the corridor’s economic challenges and were exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The One Howard Street team successfully set out to create a plan that met the realities of today while envisioning a stronger and more unified tomorrow.

MUSE Method

One Howard Street recommendations include flexible outdoor plazas that support community programming without permanently disrupting neighborhood circulation patterns.

SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF

For residents, business owners, and patrons, the street’s border nature contributes to a mix of minor annoyances and significant frustrations: misaligned addresses on either side of the street can lead to rideshare driver confusion, competing business incentives have drawn entrepreneurs who would have opened shop in Chicago across the street to Evanston, and residents’ service requests for things like streetlight outages and potholes can seem lost in a bureaucratic volley between municipalities. Alignment in policy, programming, and urban design on both sides of the street was quickly identified as a way to work toward economic recovery.

COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES

Here’s what we heard from residents, employees, and business owners on Howard Street.

We see a need for cultural inclusion.

Steering Committee member

Adding more murals of life, color, and community will make our Howard Street look and feel more inviting.

Survey respondent

Public safety starts with healing and eduction.

Public workshop attendee

People like to hang out here. Let’s formalize the space for them.

Survey respondent

Invest in community and look to Jarvis Square for inspiration. Creating more outside spaces to eat might help safety on the corridor.

Survey respondent

BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER

One Howard Street takes inspiration from third-generation CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) principles, anchoring recommendations in a “virtuous cycle” which posits that more activity on the street will lead to perceptions of increased safety, which will lead to more activity on the street, and so on.

Plan recommendations looked for ways to formalize and support how neighbors were already gathering on the street through the creation of public plazas. The corridor’s multicultural nature provides inspiration for programming and events that celebrate the community’s diversity.

Subarea vision maps provide an overview of the impact of plan recommendations.

Ground-floor activation framework

One Howard Street includes a framework that encourages flexibility when programming ground-floor spaces.

A new development in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood serves as inspiration for ground-floor residential in a commercial block that complements the community character and maintains the streetwall.
Long-vacant commercial spaces on Howard Street are reimagined as converted residential units, adding to naturally occurring affordable housing stock.

EXPLORE OTHER PLANNING PROJECTS

Evolving The Suburban TOD Plan

Beyond Translation: A Multicultural Plan

Designing An Equity-Centered Citywide Plan

NURTURING WHAT'S WORKING FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH