In 2013, Chicago witnessed the largest mass closing of public schools in United States history, presenting a significant challenge with three million square feet of unused space and over 100 acres of land across 25 neighborhoods concentrated in the West and South sides of Chicago. This publication, a decade later, delves into the systemic issues and inequities leading to these closings, examining the policies and processes that impacted communities. It also highlights community-led initiatives for just transformation and revitalization, featuring a comprehensive inventory of closed schools and case studies of selected projects, offering insights into equitable and inclusive frameworks for repurposing these spaces.

Paola Aguirre Serrano is from the Mexico-United States border region and has been an urban designer and partner at Borderless since 2016. Borderless is an architecture and urban design practice based in Chicago and San Antonio focused on collaborative frameworks addressing spatial justice and equitable design while cultivating collaborative design agency. Aguirre Serrano is an active civic design steward and educator. She has served as Commissioner of Chicago Landmarks, Chicago’s Cultural Advisory Council, and serves in the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino. Aguirre Serrano’s work through Borderless been recently recognized by the Architectural League of New York with the Emerging Voices Award (2022), John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Creative Placemaking Award (2022), Americans for the Arts Pérez Prize in Public Art & Civic Design (2022), and Landmarks Illinois’ Preservation Forward Award (2023).

Iker Gil is the founding partner of MAS Studio, the founder of the nonprofit MAS Context, and the executive director of the SOM Foundation. Gil has edited and coedited several books including Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio (MAS Context, 2023) and Shanghai Transforming (Actar Publishers, 2008). He has curated multiple exhibitions including Nocturnal Landscapes, Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac, and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was associate curator of the United States Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale and cocurator of Exhibit Columbus 2020–21. Gil was the 2024 Victor A. Morgenstern Family Visiting Chair in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology along with architect Michel Rojkind. He has also previously taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Escola da Cidade (São Paulo).

David Schalliol is an associate professor of sociology at St. Olaf College who focuses on community, social structure, and place, including through nearly a decade of research on schooling. His work has been supported by institutions including the Graham Foundation and the European Union and featured in publications including the Journal of Urban History, MAS Context, and The New York Times. In addition to exhibiting widely, Schalliol is the author of Isolated Building Studies (UTAKATADO, 2014) and coauthor, with Michael Carriere, of The City Creative: The Rise of Urban Placemaking in Contemporary America (University of Chicago Press, 2021). In this project, Schalliol employs photography to systematically document the urban context, site, building scale, and architectural character of selected closed schools, offering a visual exploration of their impact and potential.

Span is a studio that crosses the boundaries of communication design across all mediums. Their work focuses on challenging expectations with wit, logic, and a playful spirit. By blending typographic discipline with fearless expression, they elevate the role of visual messaging in both culture and community. Recognized globally for their innovative design work, Span has been celebrated in international media and by design organizations. Partners John Pobojewski, Bud Rodecker, and Nick Adam shape brand strategy and design for clients in the design, cultural, and civic communities. For this publication, Adam’s team at Span brings their inclusive process to build coownership and develop a nuanced understanding that informs their typographic details and design gestures.

Borderless Studio, established in 2016, is a social impact architecture and urban design practice based in Chicago and San Antonio focused on approaches and collaboration frameworks addressing spatial justice and equitable design while cultivating collaborative design agency. With emphasis on interdisciplinary exchange, Borderless explores creative civic design and engagement interventions that address the complexity of urban systems and spatial equity by looking at intersections between architecture, urban design, infrastructure, landscape, planning and community processes.

The mission of MAS Context—a nonprofit organization founded in 2009 and based in Chicago—is to advance the fields of architecture and design through the dissemination and sharing of ideas from different disciplines to address in a critical way specific issues of our built environment. It does so through a quarterly publication as well as a series of public lectures and events.