We had a great time hosting a group of enthusiastic students from the @myblockmyhoodmycity Explorer Program last week! During the visit, we discussed pathways into architecture as a career and the critical need for diverse voices and perspectives.
The session ended with two fun activities, drawing 30-second sketches and playing Brain Builders, which both teach useful visual and verbal communication skills. As always, we had a great time hosting this fun group. We're already looking forward to the next visit!
It's always a great time at the BUILD the Future Gala!
@buildchicago empowers youth through violence prevention, intervention, and educational support, and we are proud to have collaborated with them on a large-scale expansion of their facility in the Austin neighborhood. Seeing the art created by BUILDers and hearing their stories never fails to inspire.
LBBA Principal Terran Wilson attended the opening of Amos Paul Kennedy Jr.'s (@kennedyprints ) poster exhibition at the National Public Housing Museum (@thenphm ), an adaptive reuse project she helped lead.
Kennedy's updated "Housing for All, Art for All, Posters for the People" exhibition connects the New Deal-era commitment to artists and cultural workers with the museum’s present-day commitment to arts, culture, and public policy. This connection resonates particularly well in the museum, which is itself a living artifact of that era.
Happy Earth Day! For the third year in a row, we celebrated by getting our hands dirty at @chicagofarmworks in East Garfield Park.
The 2.5-acre urban farm fights food insecurity by growing fresh, organic produce for local food pantries on Chicago's west side. In 2024 alone, the farm harvested 27,000 servings of produce and provided economic opportunities to 41 participants enrolled in the transitional jobs program.
FarmWorks depends on volunteers, so visit or @heartlandhumancareservices website to learn about how you can help.
Construction is well underway for South Side Terrace Phase II in Omaha, NE!
This transformative development reimagines one of the country's oldest housing projects, replacing the site's previous barracks-style buildings with a diverse range of housing types designed to welcome residents across a broad range of incomes.
Beyond housing, the development prioritizes community life. Green spaces, including a multi-sport playing field, a tiered playground, walking paths, and a raised garden will be woven throughout the site. The development includes a 64-unit multi-family elevator building that will offer residential services, two smaller walk-up buildings, and townhouse clusters.
This project was awarded the Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, recognizing its commitment to mixed-income housing and reinvestment in overlooked communities.
Client: @brinshore
Our first project in Ann Arbor is complete, and residents have started moving in!
Rooted in the history of the “Kerrytown” neighborhood, Dunbar Tower is a 63-unit affordable housing development for unhoused people and low-income artists. The building's name honors the former Dunbar Center on Fourth Avenue, a gathering place for Black residents in Ann Arbor that shaped the neighborhood for generations. The design reflects that legacy throughout: murals by local artists, resident community spaces, and a future community space open to the public. The building is all-electric with a geothermal system for heating and cooling and rooftop PV array, supporting Ann Arbor's goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.
It has been a privilege to work alongside the Ann Arbor Housing Commission and @avalonhousing , which is providing on-site supportive services for tenants.
Join our team of socially minded architects making a positive impact on communities through collaborative, empathetic design!
We’re seeking a talented, self-motivated Project Architect/Designer with 5-8 years of experience and excellent design, communication, and technical skills to join our team! The ideal candidate brings expertise in managing multi-unit housing projects, deep knowledge of Chicago Building and Zoning Code, and a strong foundation in sustainability and accessibility standards. You'll guide projects through all design phases, from initial land planning to construction observation.
If you value collaboration and are looking to work on engaging solutions for affordable housing and community spaces, we would love to hear from you.
See the job listing on our News and Events page for more information and how to apply (link in bio).
Single Room Occupancy (SRO) buildings have been a cornerstone of affordable housing for Chicago since the nineteenth century and are a core part of LBBA's work.
Despite their historical significance, SROs have largely been demolished or converted into luxury rentals over the decades. LBBA has worked to counter that trend, completing approximately a dozen SRO projects across the city, including historic preservations, moderate to gut rehabs, and one new construction that marked the first SRO building built in Chicago in over 50 years. We are currently rehabbing several supportive housing SROs, continuing our long commitment to this vital housing type.
It was wonderful guiding Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) members on a tour of two of our recently completed projects last weekend! LBBA Associate Kate Lengacher Cichon and Aaron Baar from the @chicagolighthouse led the group through The Foglia Residences, the first LIHTC building designed for the blind and visually impaired.
On our second stop, Terran Wilson, LBBA Principal, joined Tiff Beatty from the @thenphm to discuss how our team preserved the last Jane Addams Homes building while respecting the history of the site and neighborhood.
Thank you to the @aianational Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community and the tour leaders, Karen Kubey and Christina Bollo, for organizing this event and helping bring awareness to these important projects.
As part of Chicago Rehab Network's Community Empowerment Workshop Series, we led a tour of SACRED Apartments, an 81-unit supportive housing building currently under construction in South Chicago. The building will provide a mix of unit types from studios to 4-bedroom units to support the diverse needs of the neighborhood.
The tour highlighted project and construction management with an emphasis on effective collaboration. The SACRED project exemplifies successful partnerships between diverse groups with different expertise, experiences, and perspectives.
We're proud to participate in this award-winning program that empowers individuals committed to strengthening communities through thoughtful housing development. Thank you to our longtime friends and partners at @chicagorehabnetwork , Angela Hurlock and Kevin Jackson, for inviting us to participate, as well as our partners Claretian Associates and Interfaith Housing Development Corporation (IHDC), and our general contractor, Henry Bros Co., for sharing their expertise.
An alternative to the large, dense public housing developments, scattered-site housing prioritizes integration with low-density buildings that blend into the neighborhood fabric and help residents feel at home in their communities.
Completed in 2017, IFF Access Housing provides community-based affordable rental housing for people with disabilities across 25 sites within a 2.5-mile footprint in Chicago's Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods. By rehabilitating 12 foreclosed buildings and constructing 13 new two- and three-flat buildings on city-owned infill lots, the project helps to stabilize the surrounding communities by reimagining underutilized properties. The development also helped ensure that there would be affordable housing along the 606 trail before it was completed.
A less discussed affordable housing model, scattered-site housing remains important to addressing our ongoing housing crisis. Its human-scale approach and gentle density is particularly well-suited for families and offers a sense of belonging and neighborhood connection.
We just completed our first office donation drive of the year for @nourishinghopechi !
This canned food drive comes at a time when everyone is feeling pressure to afford the exploding cost of groceries and everyday essentials. The donations will be distributed across the city through the food pantries that Nourishing Hope operates, including La Casa Norte and Lakeview Food Pantry.
We hope that our team's donations make a difference for those who need it most!
