2025
Participants
Team O1
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Working Bikes strengthens local and global communities by giving donated bicycles new life and redistributing them as tools for self-determination. They work toward a world where everyone has access to bicycle transportation—whether in Africa, Latin America, or Chicago—and where bicycles are the most reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly transportation available! Since its inception in 1999, the amazing community of Working Bikes volunteers, staff, partners, and supporters have enabled new life for 100,000 bicycles across the globe and tens of thousands here in Chicago.
Gideon Schwartzman is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Illinois School of Architecture and Principal of Design Office Truwit Schwartzman in Chicago. He holds a Master of Architecture with distinction from the University of Michigan and an SMarchS from MIT, where he received the institute wide Marvin E. Goody Thesis Award as well as the Louis C. Rosenberg Fellowship. His work has been published in Dimensions, Plat, Pool, Fresh Meat, and Room 1000, and exhibited at venues including the São Paulo Biennale, A+D Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Gideon has previously worked with Johnston Marklee, Höweler + Yoon, Dirk Denison Architects, and is a founding member of the Critical Broadcasting Lab at MIT.
Hugh Swiatek is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Illinois School of Architecture. Hugh was born in Poland and grew up on Chicago’s Southwest side. He received his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Hugh’s experience in practice includes work with Maine based design-build firm GO-Logic and Reifsteck Wakefield Fanning in Champaign. His experiences in practice have included designing prefabricated residential homes built to the Passive House standard, a supportive housing community for medically fragile individuals experiencing homelessness, and an addition to the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine Teaching hospital. He teaches design studio and is the co-coordinator of the Foundation design studios. In both his teaching and his practice, Hugh focuses on the relationship between drawing and making. Hugh is a recipient of the Urbana Public Arts Grant, and his work has been exhibited at the Krannert Art Museum.
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Team O2
Community Collaborators:
One Lawndale Arts & Activism Incubator + Chicago Park District
Design Contributors:
Resolver Studio (Claudia Ansorena and Rogelio Cadena)
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One Lawndale Arts & Activism Incubator builds on past unification projects in North Lawndale and Little Village (South Lawndale) to create new power and real liberation for our communities by providing collaborative and brave facilitation, fresh thought-partnership, experienced leadership, racial healing towards black/brown solidarity and access to high quality, community rooted arts-based resources that create a new, liberated and unified Lawndale—One Lawndale.
The Culture, Arts & Nature Department (of the Chicago Park District) amplifies artistic and cultural vibrancy in our parks. We support artists, facilitate community-based partnerships and programs, cultivate civic engagement, and ensure equity and access to the arts for all Chicagoans.
Claudia Ansorena is a Cuban-American architect, educator, and artist. She is the co-founder of Resolver Studio, a design practice based in Chicago that embraces architecture as the backdrop of everyday life. She teaches at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture and has previously been an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, the University of Miami, and Florida Atlantic University. She holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University, where she was the editor of Retropecta 44 and Paprika, and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami. Claudia's work and research center on conscious design practices adapted from responses to material scarcity. Her shared architectural practice is grounded in the Cuban spirit of resolver – to make do with what is around – as an attitude towards material reuse and contextual thinking.
Rogelio Cadena is visiting assistant professor in the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Architecture and co-founder of Resolver Studio. His work primarily focuses on the connection between architecture, community and urbanism as a form of cultural production. Rogelio received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Miami and a Master in Architecture and Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is the 2023 Jeanne and John Rowe Fellow at IIT where his work primarily focuses on communities surrounding the historic Chicago Park Boulevard System, and is the founder of We the Blvd, a coalition dedicated to activation and stewardship efforts along the Boulevards. He is the recipient of the Urban Design Thesis Prize from the Harvard Graduate School of Design for his thesis on the topic. Rogelio has also taught at the University of Miami, Florida Atlantic University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
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Team O3
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Theater Y: Newly and permanently relocated to the border of North Lawndale and Little Village, Theatre Y, is now in its 19th year of experimental theater productions. Theatre Y is committed to continuously re-thinking the practice of theater as a tool of liberation and a revolutionary practice.
Alina Nazmeeva is a media artist, architect, and educator whose work examines the material and cultural implications of technology. Her work integrates XR, AI, textile, physical installation, digital simulation, and gaming engines as storytelling devices and as sites of critique. Alina is Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture. She holds a Masters degree from MIT SA+P. She was a fellow-in-residence at the University of Michigan, Canadian Centre of Architecture and at Strelka Institute. Alina’s work has been exhibited worldwide including the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Architecture + Design Museum in Los Angeles, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Digital Art Zurich, Slamdance, and HKWalls in Hong Kong.
John David Wagner is a design consultant, researcher, and licensed architect with over a decade of experience advancing change in the built environment through design innovation, social advocacy, and a commitment to net-zero decarbonization and climate adaptation. His interdisciplinary practice bridges architecture, design education, public art, social advocacy, and environmental resilience. John’s work has been commissioned by institutions such as the Boston Society for Architecture, the Harvard Arts First Festival, and the Massachusetts Transformative Development Initiative. As an educator, he has taught at the University of Michigan, Rhode Island School of Design, Boston Architectural College, and Wentworth Institute of Technology.
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Team O4
Community Collaborators:
UCAN
Design Contributors:
Team NMNO: Kim Ayala Najera, Adel Machacca, Aaron Neal, and Uthman Olowa
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UCAN strengthens communities by supporting youth and families. UCAN’s expertise spans youth in care, youth development, mental health, therapeutic schools, workforce development, and violence prevention and intervention.
Kim Ayala Najera is a Mexican-American woman, architectural designer, fabrication artist, and sustainable up-cycler from Southern California. Her practice uses architectural tools and drawing conventions to tell stories of embodied experiences and the ways space and place making happens in the in-between, border, or edge spaces. She received her M.ARCH in 2023 from Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently completing a 2 year teaching fellowship as an AICAD fellow at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Adel Machacca is an architectural designer and educator specializing in architectural visualization, spatial design, and parametric modeling. His work bridges traditional architecture with emerging technologies such as AI, AR, and algorithmic design, enabling innovative, future-ready solutions across built and digital environments. Adel has led design initiatives for global brands and cultural institutions, overseeing everything from conceptual development and spatial storytelling to technical execution and digital integration. As an educator, Adel teaches architecture-focused courses that combine foundational design thinking with advanced digital tools.
Aaron Neal is an Assistant Professor of Interior Architecture at the University of Tennessee. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Interior Architecture from Auburn University and a Master of Arts in Adaptive Reuse as a Presidential Fellow from the Rhode Island School of Design. Aaron began his career in higher education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was awarded an AICAD Post Graduate Teaching Fellowship from 2023-2025. His research lies at the intersection of the right to shelter, heritage, analyzing the lingering effects of past public policy within minority communities, and adaptive reuse. With our current climate crisis, he believes we can no longer solely afford to build new structures.
Uthman Olowa is a Chicago based designer, educator, and artist. He earned his M.Arch degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University. Uthman’s practice explores the ways architecture can serve as a tool to create spaces that support and affirm the rich cultural practices of Black and Brown communities. By blending his art skills with his background in engineering, Uthman approaches design with a balance of technical precision and creative expression. In 2022, Uthman was a recipient of Gensler’s Rising Black Designer Scholarship award, recognizing his vision to positively impact communities as an aspiring architect. In 2023, Uthman became a founding board member of New York Urban Design League, a non-profit dedicated to nurturing young people to become future design leaders through civic engagement, science, math, and the arts. Uthman recently completed his AICAD teaching fellowship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he taught undergraduate and graduate architecture courses for two years.
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Team O5
Community Collaborator:
Stone Temple Baptist Church (Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick)
Design Contributors:
Mobile Makers (Karli Honroth, Maliq Cherry, Georgina Bowman, Maya Bird-Murphy and Stephen Cortez)
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Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick is Executive Pastor at Stone Temple Baptist Church, located in the heart of North Lawndale on Douglas Boulevard. Pastor Reshorna has been a visionary partner, central collaborator, and on-site steward of the festival grounds at James Stone Freedom Square since the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival's inception in 2022. In addition to her leadership of the church alongside her husband Bishop Derrick Fitzpatrick, Pastor Reshorna leads and advises a variety of neighborhood initiatives, and she chairs the North Lawndale Community Coordinating Council/Greening Open Water Soil Sustainability Committee. In December 2020, Pastor Reshorna and Bishop Derrick were recognized in Time magazine as 2020 Heroes for their intensified support to the North Lawndale Community.
Mobile Makers is a nonprofit organization that makes design education accessible to everyone. Through youth design and skill-building workshops, community engagement, public installations, and pop-ups hosted out of a retrofitted mail truck, Mobile Makers encourages conversations about positive change in the built environment. The mission of the organization is to engage and empower youth through design and skill-building, train and support future public interest designers, architects, and makers, and to advocate for equity and social, economic, gender, and racial diversity in the fields of design and architecture. For eight years, Mobile Makers has met youth and communities where they are by bringing art, design, and digital fabrication workshops and engagement to their neighborhoods and empowering them to address issues that affect them daily. Team members include Karli Honroth, Maliq Cherry, Georgina Bowman, Maya Bird-Murphy, and Stephen Cortez.
