We’re thinking of how to take empty storefronts and strip mall spaces and turn them into live-work spaces. Many people want to live where they work and work where they live. And many people want to start their own businesses or creative endeavors and not pay two rents while doing so. Sometimes a leftover bedroom that’s repurposed as a home office just isn’t enough space or the right space. But current zoning laws very often restrict mixing programs like living and working in the same place.

At the same time, there are a growing number of vacant small-scale commercial spaces in cities like Chicago. Between the pandemic and shifts in how consumers shop, small strip malls and ground floor retail spaces have been emptying.

The project proposes place-specific zoning code changes in cities like Chicago that currently restrict residential living units from taking place within ground floor commercial spaces along commercial corridors. Zoning changes that allow live-work spaces at street level can make communities more attractive to creative/entrepreneurial individuals. In turn these people living and working in these spaces can energize their communities.