• Home
• About Us
  • Mission
  • Goals
  • Staff
• Current Projects
  • Community Development
  • Education
  • Housing
  • Economic Development
• History
  • Recent History
  • Archives
• Community Service Opportunities
  • Volunteers
  • Work Study
  • Forms
• Community Events
• Contact Us

History of IIT in the Community

Since its founding over a century ago, Illinois Institute of Technology has been committed to providing access to higher educational opportunities and resources to the Chicago area. IIT was one of the first universities to recognize and appreciate the complimentary affect universities and neighborhoods have on one another.

Founded as the Armour Institute of Technology in 1890, the university grew up around the site of the Armour Mission, created by the meat-packing family to serve the needs of stockyard employees and their families. The Armour Institute's mission was to educate Chicago's youth to meet the needs of the rapidly emerging industrializing economy of the Midwest.

In 1946, IIT's President, Henry Heald, helped form the Southside Planning Board, with Mercy and Michael Reese Hospitals and the City of Chicago, to lead the urban renewal process. This initiative led to the creation of IIT's current campus, McCormick Place, Prairie Shores, Lake Meadows and South Commons communities.

Establishing The Community Relations Department

In 1989, Illinois Institute of Technology formally established its Community Relations Department through a grant from the James S. Kemper Foundation. Leroy Kennedy, long-time community organizer and activist, was recruited as its first director. The original priority of IIT's community relations initiative was to build formal relationships and partnerships between IIT and local associations and community-based organizations and institutions in those neighborhoods.

top

Stimulating Community Investments: The Mid-South Strategic Development Plan

Illinois Institute of Technology has been a major proponent of additional capital investments in Bronzeville. A 1989 grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation had "…the attraction of capital investments to the communities adjacent to the IIT main campus…" as one of its objectives. In 1990, the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development received a major planning grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation to develop a land use plan for those adjacent communities.

Between 1990 and 1993, that land use plan, the Mid-South Strategic Redevelopment Plan, was developed. Completed in 1993, this award-winning Plan was a direct result of IIT's partnership with local neighborhood organizations, the City of Chicago, and the corporate and philanthropic communities. IIT's role in securing the initial grant, encouraging community participation and utilizing its physical, academic and financial resources to aid in the development of the plan is well-documented in the plan itself. The university, through various partnerships, has now begun to implement key aspects of the plan and assist in furthering many of the Mid-South Plan's goals.

Meanwhile, in 1992, IIT helped organize the first Urban Parade of Homes in Chicago, in the neighboring Gap Community. By encouraging developers to build market-rate homes on lots sold to them by IIT, the university helped stimulate the first new market-rate housing in the community in fifty years. This stimulus, along with the White Sox replacement housing, led to acceleration of the Gap Community's transformation.

In 1993, Illinois Institute of Technology established the National Commission for IIT to reflect on the university's future and its relationship with the community. For IIT to thrive in the 21st century, that community, recently re-identified as Bronzeville, would have to return to its former state as a viable urban neighborhood. IIT made the basic decision to stay in the community and rebuild its main campus and accelerate its work to support community development. The recent and remarkable economic growth that has taken place in Bronzeville is both the result of and the reason for the university's renewed focus.

As an indicator of this renewal, IIT's community relations department has identified some $450 million in public and private physical improvements within 10 blocks of the campus either underway or planned for completion by 2005.

The most prominent investments include the decision to locate the new City of Chicago Police headquarters on the south edge of IIT's Campus at 35th and Michigan, the creation of the Chicago Public School's ROTC Academy, and the investments associated with the IIT campus itself.

Leveraging Institutional Resources for the Community's Benefit

The Community Relations Department's main responsibility has been to identify and respond to community needs by leveraging the talents of its faculty and students, and making its facilities available as appropriate for community and educational programs. Over the last ten years, these activities have varied widely based on changing community requirements. They've included:

Support of four years of joint design studios between IIT and the Harvard Graduate School of design, commencing with the redesign of the 35th St. Commercial Corridor.