No Small Plans

No Small Plans represents the colossal undertaking of presenting history, social and political commentary, and gripping storytelling with the goal of understanding how the concepts of community and urban development coalesce and intertwine. Commissioned by the Chicago Architectural Foundation (CAF), with contributions from Lyon (CAF, VP of education) and educator/artists Devin Mawdsley, Kayce Bayer, Chris Lin, and Deon Reed, it sets out to do what the Wacker's Manual (1911) did for more than a century: introduce young people in the Windy City to the "1909 Plans of Chicago," which helped shape and build the metropolis as it is today. The stories take place in three time periods and revolve around teenagers from various parts of society whose lives are connected by the area's geography in different yet similar ways. In "The Past 1928," a group of ethnically disparate immigrant children seek to answer who the city is for. In "The Present, 2017," teenagers from the Englewood and Pilsen communities wrestle with issues of gentrification as one of them faces eviction in the name of "development." "The Future, 2211" features youth who are selected to take part in civic planning for city sections in which they do not live, learning how to balance the challenges those areas face.