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Learn how a 150-year-old Chicago beautification project has sculpted the city’s neighborhoods during a lecture titled, “We the BLVD: A Call to Activation Along the Chicago Boulevard System.” The lecture will be given by College of Architecture Visiting Assistant Professor Rogelio Cadena at S. R. Crown Hall’s Upper Center Core beginning at 5 p.m. on March 26.

At its inception, the Chicago Boulevard System was heralded as a civic success and provided ample space for carriage transportation and leisure activities for a certain class of Chicago’s residents. But how does the system work today?

Cadena, the College of Architecture’s 2023 Jeanne and John Rowe Fellow, will examine the Chicago Boulevard System’s past, present, and future purposes as connection infrastructure and how it can serve as a call to activation for Chicago residents, organizers, and designers.

The lecture will include Cadena discussing archival documents, interviews with local nonprofit organizations, and an examination of public engagement activities such as installations, events, and other development. The lecture aims to explore ways to address the Chicago Boulevard System’s current underutilization, while also considering the city’s evolving socioeconomic and racial color lines.  

In addition to his role in the College of Architecture, Cadena is a co-founder of Resolver Studio. His work focuses on the connection between architecture, community, and urbanism. He joined Illinois Institute of Technology in 2023. His research project, titled “How Are ‘We’ Living? A Reevaluation of the Chicago Park Boulevard System,” won the Urban Design Thesis Prize at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.