In May of 2024, AIA Chicago Executive Director Jen Masengarb, Assoc. AIA, sat down with the Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright. As a nationally-recognized real estate professional with 10+ years of experience, Commissioner Boatright is a leader in developing high-impact industrial, retail, affordable housing and mixed-use projects in Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Jen Masengarb, Assoc. AIA: You’ve had a career in Chicago. You’re from Chicago. This is home. How does Chicago look different from the 10th floor of City Hall than it did before?
Commissioner Boatright: It looks just as beautiful, with more opportunities. Opportunities that, as a developer, as a lifelong Chicagoan, even I wasn’t privy to.
One thing that’s somewhat unique for me in this position is where I come from. I’m a planner and a practitioner, right? Sitting in this seat, having an understanding of what the market really is.
Understanding first hand how things get done and what some of the frustrations are. And what some of the barriers have been historically. My perspective is both on the nonprofit side and the for-profit side. I think it’s important to note that they’re different. I learned engagement from nonprofit development. I learned some of the challenges. I learned unique financing. I learned historic preservation — that started in a historic district, in Pullman. So those are real key components to my perspective and how I think about real estate development and the power of architecture to positively impact the landscape of our city.
[Chicago] is beautiful. It’s promising. It’s got such a bright future, and opportunities galore for development, for collaboration, and to support businesses. There’s just so many different opportunities that I had an idea of, but never knew how we could really, really accomplish. I had visions, and recognized that there were different tools that are available to ensure that we can really do development and equitable development at scale, but now in this seat and now with some really key tools as part of our toolbox — like the economic development bond and Cut the Tape executive order that the mayor announced — it’s even more momentum to really address key challenges that our city has experienced for decades and decades in a very strategic way. I’m excited.
Jen Masengarb: From your perspective, what is the role of architecture and architects in advancing equity in Chicago’s neighborhoods?
Commissioner Boatright: When you think about development in Chicago, we have beautiful architecture. We’re known for that. And all of our neighbors and neighborhoods deserve quality design and quality, thoughtful, sustainable architecture. And so what role do architects play? They’re partners to us — just like developers are partners and community groups are partners to us. And they will ensure that, working together, we have beautifully designed buildings where people are proud to live, work, and visit in a very thoughtful way. It’s not just beautiful buildings downtown, but it’s beautiful buildings in every neighborhood in our city. So I think that’s a pivotal role that architects play, ensuring that we don’t just have economic development, but we have beautiful designs, beautiful parks, and we’ve got examples of how that looks. But it requires coordination. It requires collaboration and a commitment to quality design and understanding how to get there.
Jen Masengarb: When you talk about that commitment to quality design, what advice would you have for architects for working with the City and thinking about creating quality projects that last?
Commissioner Boatright: The City is committed to quality design. I think you have developers that also want quality that they want beautiful buildings. Now, are there challenges with costs? Absolutely. But I think there’s an opportunity for tighter collaboration between developers, between architects, and obviously with the City.
I’ve mentioned Cut the Tape, which is the mayor’s executive order. One thing that should be a breath of fresh air for architects that may have flipped through some of the recommendations is we want to make sure that we’re streamlining some of the processes that architects and developers are used to going through so that we can move development along faster, moving it along in a very thoughtful way. So it’s not just ramming the process through to get shovels in the ground, but doing it faster in a really thoughtful and strategic way.
An example of one of the Cut the Tape recommendations is to streamline the design process from three reviews to one. That helps architects. That helps the development team. So if you, as an architect, are coming, you don’t have to come and revise things three different times. Instead, you’re doing it once. And you’re getting all the feedback from the different parties at one time so that you can go and make adjustments and so that we can ensure that we’re moving the development process along faster and we’re also ensuring beautiful buildings at the end of the project.
After Mayor Brandon Johnson signed Executive Order 2023-21 in December, the Mayor’s Office and 14 City departments evaluated existing development processes and proposed solutions that will remove bottlenecks and accelerate approval timelines.
Jen Masengarb: Can you share other examples from Cut the Tape recommendations that you think architects will specifically welcome?
Commissioner Boatright: One recommendation that our department put forth is the elimination of parking minimums. That’s a big deal. Now, what does that mean for developers? Are we saying don’t build parking? No. We’re saying to developers, you have to understand your market. You have to understand your potential tenants and you know how many parking spots you should have. But as a City and as DPD should we mandate you to have ‘X’ number? No. If there’s an opportunity for you to actually put that investment in actual unit development, thereby creating more affordable units and market rate units, that feels more responsible. We have a sophisticated transit system, right? And so where and when appropriate, we want to really push that and not mandate ‘X’ number of parking spots where it doesn’t feel appropriate. So there’s something to be said about more flexibility and understanding — that this is a partnership, this is a collaborative. We want to make sure that we’re working together with the architects, with the developers.
Jen Masengarb: Were there any recommendations that came through the Cut the Tape initiative that you worked on with the Department of Buildings?
Commissioner Boatright: Many of the recommendations that were made were not made in isolation, because we understand the implications. So, for example, at [a] Plan Commission [meeting] last month, we introduced a conversion from ground floor commercial to residential. That’s an example. How does that look? There are some areas where they’re able to do that by-right and we want to expand that, so there is a way that we can encourage more naturally occurring affordable housing and a way that we can really address vacancies at the ground level. That’s not just a DPD-driven thing. Certainly that’s through zoning. But I think there’s an opportunity for us to use examples like that as a way in which we’re collaborating, coordinating between other departments in a really thoughtful way. None of the decisions that we have made, or recommendations that have come from us, have really been in isolation of other key partners.
You hear me talk a lot about collaboration, and being collaborative is something that’s really important to me. When we’re collaborative, we’re making thoughtful decisions and we’re taking different perspectives into account. And I think that’s really important as we think about development and the future of economic development in our city and in our neighborhoods.
Jen Masengarb: We have dozens of small architecture firms – including Minority-owned and Women-owned Businesses (MBE/WBE) – emerging in the city. How are you thinking about allowing for that influx of new ideas in City-funded projects from those newer small firms?
Commissioner Boatright: We encourage it. And we’ll continue to encourage it.
We’ve got some examples where, when we issue RFPs, we want to see diverse partnerships, right? And it doesn’t just start on the construction side. We want to see diverse partnerships in the professional service side, right through our architects. There’s a talented pool of architects and we want to make sure that we’re tapping the local talent. Tapping the MBEs and WBEs. We want innovative ideas and, like I said, diverse teams. It’s also important to recognize that the professional service firms should reflect the communities in a thoughtful way. And so we’ve got examples from RFPs that were issued highlighting the importance of diverse teams, right? There’s an opportunity to bring large experienced architectural firms together with less experienced, but equally qualified, architecture firms — to come together and come up with some amazing designs that can then be developed into transformative buildings and developments in our neighborhoods.
We’ve done it. Bronzeville Winery is an example. We’ve got an MBE/WBE architect that worked on that project. We’re excited about that. If you walk in that space, it’s such a cool space. And when we talk about innovation and creativity, those cool ideas come from local women-owned, minority-owned and other architecture firms. And so we want to create a bigger space for more people to join this important work that we’re doing. We’ve got great ideas. We’ve got amazing firms, and there’s room for others.
Jen Masengarb: One point of feedback and frustration that we’ve heard from small firms is that the process for a large firm and a small firm is the same, and that’s challenging for them.
Commissioner Boatright: That’s a fair statement. I think that our team has continued to make a concerted effort to remove barriers for entry. And so I think there are different ways that we engage architectural firms. So you hear RFPs and oftentimes you think about big mega projects. But we also have smaller projects that are equally catalytic. They’re smaller in scale, but equally catalytic in terms of impact.
And so one thing that’s come out of our economic development bond — and it’s worth the read — is our ‘Missing Middle [initiative]’. And so the ‘Missing Middle’ is our way of really addressing housing and really thinking about affordable home ownership opportunities throughout our cities, specifically in those neighborhoods that have an overwhelming number of vacant City-owned lots. When I say an overwhelming number, we have like 10,000 vacant lots in the City’s inventory. This is a unique way for us to put vacant lots back in productive use. Really repopulate neighborhoods, thereby supporting our commercial corridors. Who will be needed? Developers and architects. We want quality designs, and so while some architectural teams may look and say, “Oh, that feels daunting. That’s an overwhelming RFP. My jam is really on the residential side. I like the single family 2-flat, 3-flat development opportunities.” There’s a space for you. We’re excited about that. And I’m not talking about five lots. We’re talking about thousands of lots.
So in terms of removing barriers so that there is better access to this space and opportunities to develop and design in Chicago, those are examples. We want to meet architectural teams where they are. We want to meet the firms where they are, and there’s lots of different levels of entry I would say and both are important, and I just want to underscore that. It’s not just the, you know, the typical sexy projects that you see — those mega developments. Those are important too. But so are our neighborhood scale developments that really transform communities in a thoughtful, strategic and sustainable way.
Jen Masengarb: What do you wish the architectural community knew or understood better about the work of the Department of Planning and Development (DPD)?
Commissioner Boatright: We’re doing some amazing work and some cool work that requires creativity and ingenuity and partnerships and collaboration. And I want the architectural community to know and to understand that DPD is a partner. We want buildings that are designed thoughtfully. We want beautiful renderings that we can actually develop. We want to be partners to developers and architects. It’s a true partnership. We want to figure out how we can be easier to work with.
I think the Cut the Tape initiative is a true commitment to being pro-development, and by being pro-development, saying design is important. If we’re pro-development, we want to ensure that we have beautifully designed communities and buildings and developments. That we’re preserving buildings and thinking about historic preservation, but also thinking about new construction and a really thoughtful way that’s complementary to the historic fabric in our communities. So I want the architectural community to know we’re ready to be a partner, and even a better partner.
What’s not working, we want to hear. We all want to continue to go along and get along. We want to make sure that our processes are efficient and that we’re committed to get to yes. And so we want to hear what’s not working well. We want to keep the lines of communication open from that perspective so that it’s easier to work with us, easier to move projects along. That projects go from concepts to real, actual developments that make the impact that our neighborhoods all deserve and need, no matter where they are located in Chicago, right? We want beautifully designed projects.
Jen Masengarb: Good design for all.
Commissioner Boatright: Absolutely, without a doubt.
