Katie Lesh

Carve, Release, Expand: A spatial exploration of the clandestine music spaces of Chicago

The architectural disciplines, and particularly that of landscape architecture and urban design, have shifted focus towards “urban renewal”. But what does this truly mean? On the surface it can look like turning warehouse districts into artist villages or taking space underneath a highway to turn into a linear park. We think of spatial design as contributing, or adding to the public realm but what question needs to be asked is not what are we adding but rather, what are we taking away? The question is much bigger than myself but in the case of Chicago, the city has been home to vibrant music and art communities that are incredibly unique to the city itself, making the point that music and art is a place-based practice. But many of its art and music spaces have been transformed into the sterile and unrecognizable in the eyes of urban renewal. Using the lens of house music, a derivative of disco that was born in Chicago in the early 1980s, we can begin to document and see how our rapid expansion and renewal of a city has transformed the once vibrant creative energy into fractions of a city that can be found anywhere in the world, far removed from its context. Carve, Release, Expand raises an alternative view to reading the city of Chicago by situating it has the music powerhouse that it always has been.

Map of Chicago that highlights music venues in the 1980s-1990s and their proximity to industrial corridors.

Collage recreating life in the birthplace of House music, "The Warehouse" in the West Loop, Chicago.

Collage recreating the feeling and energy of Belmont Rocks on the shore of Lake Michigan near Boystown, Chicago

Hand drawn site analysis plan of the surroundings of a music venue in Chicago in the 1980s.

Hand drawn site analysis plan of the surroundings of Belmont Rocks in Chicago in the 1980s.

Hand drawn mind map with pen and marker, highlighting the complex interactions of the context and variables of the thesis.

Diagrams mapping energy and social activity near both the Belmont Rocks and The Warehouse and their urban contexts during the day and night time.

The diagram reframes the physical barriers in Chicago as already claimed public spaces that form the art and music subculture network seen throughout the city.