CHICAGO, IL
Little Village (La Villita) is a vibrant neighborhood that is the home to one of the largest Mexican populations outside of Mexico. 26th Street, also known as Calle Mexico, serves as the commercial and cultural heart of Little Village. The Little Village Arch is the gateway to 26th Street and Little Village. An iconic terracotta archway given as a gift by the Mexican government to the people of Chicago.
Located adjacent to the arch, Little Village Plaza (LVP) was a dated shopping center with a jumbled mess of facades and signs, yet important for the neighborhood. The three-phase design called for a significant facelift, and a fresh mix of retail and service tenants, to update the center yet retain the vibrancy of Little Village. Phase 1 was the renovation of the existing facades. Phase 2 was the addition of two new buildings, a restaurant and bank along 26th Street, defining the long missing urban edge and the entrance experience. Phase 3 was the reworking of the existing massive sea of asphalt parking by incorporating defined curbs, walkways, plazas, lighting and landscaping. Central to the plan was reworking the Little Village Discount Mall, a beloved and important small-vendor space that rents stalls for the local population to sell their products at an economical cost, playing on the traditions of the central Mexican Marketplace found in most towns and villages.
The design defines the retail building using simple, colorful frames of stucco, reminiscent of both traditional Mexican markets and modern Mexican architecture. Large archways of perforated metal and steel mark the entrances. The bold colors (blue, orange, red, yellow, green, and pink) give each tenant their own identity while the consistency in form gives the center an overall coherent look while keeping the vitality that is seen up and down 26th Street and allowing the consistent forms and the palette of bold colors to organize and anchor the center. Modern, contemporary version of the Little Village Arch, built of steel and brightly colored perforated metal, become portals, a blue arch for 26th Street and a green arch for 27th Street, integrated into the designs of their adjacent buildings. The arch becomes both a void one can pass through and a frame for the buildings, a form repeated throughout the new facades of the center.
The colorful facades invite customers and street vendors into the center and helped revitalize the Discount Mall. Beyond cleaning up a heavily used but ragtag collection of buildings, the renovation of Little Village Plaza created a place that is now considered the central marketplace of Little Village. A place where the neighborhood can meet, eat, shop and call home.