CNT Board Member Wins Prestigious Architectural Award
Photo credit: Anthony May Photography
At this year’s Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards, CNT board member Patricia Saldaña Natke and her firm UrbanWorks won the 2013 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design for La Casa Student Dormitory, located in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Designed as a new innovative model in student housing, the project incorporates all of the benefits and resources of on-campus living while serving nearly all major colleges and universities in the Chicago area.
Finding safe and affordable student housing in Chicago’s South Side is one of the biggest challenges facing Chicago’s Pilsen community. For over ten years, The Resurrection Project, worked to make this a reality.
The new La Casa Student Dormitory provides housing for up to 105 student residents on a corner site at Paulina and 18th Streets and is quickly becoming a Pilsen “icon.” The six-story, 33,000-square-foot cast-in-place concrete structure includes a lively façade of glass, masonry, and a varied pattern of windows and colorful fiber cement panels expressing the dynamic nature of the neighborhood and its residents. Facilities include administrative offices, a computer lounge, laundry, shared kitchens, living space and private study areas.
As Founding Partner and President of UrbanWorks, Pat oversees the design excellence for every project. Her firm has a passion for cities, neighborhoods, and especially the most vulnerable sections of cities and their population. They are firm believers that spaces and places which allow cultural exchange underpins urban transformation.
In accepting the award, Pat said, “Cities are a living canvas, where with hope, architecture can continue to deliver a better life. Our clients, The Resurrection Project, a not for profit community development organization led by Raul Raymundo, Guacolda Reyes and Benito Hernandez have a genuine desire to positively impact neighborhoods. Great projects are truly the outcome of great clients—clients with innate ideals. We are inspired by their goodness. They wanted a creative hip student residence space in the community and we were honored to meet that wish.”
We congratulate Pat, UrbanWorks, and The Resurrection Project in bringing innovative student housing to the Pilsen neighborhood.
