Public Housing Museum breaks ground on West Side

The National Public Housing Museum has broken ground on its Chicago headquarters.

The museum, which has been working out of a temporary space for the past 10 years, is building a $16 million, 45,000-square-foot facility with display space and offices inside a former affordable housing building, the Chicago Business Journal reported. The space will be located in the former Jane Addams Homes at 1322 West Taylor Street.

The National Public Housing Museum, which has been operating out of 625 North Kingsbury Street, tells the story of public housing in the United States.

“Its mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper — a place to call home,” the museum’s website reads.

The project is being designed by Landon Bone and Baker.

Lisa Lee, the executive director of the museum, said construction is expected to begin by the end of this month and be completed by fourth-quarter 2023.

“The museum also includes a partnership with the CHA and [developer] Related Midwest,” Lee told the outlet, “so the back of our building in the museum complex will include 15 units of mixed-income housing,”

The museum itself will have an art gallery of work curated by public housing residents across the country. There will also be public spaces and what Lee is calling the nation’s “largest oral history archive of public housing resident stories.”

The president of the project’s general contractor, GMA Construction Group, has personal experience with public housing, according to Lee. Cornelius Griggs grew up in the former Cabrini Green public housing complex on the city’s Near West Side.

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