{"id":11148,"date":"2015-03-18T11:21:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T16:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=11148"},"modified":"2015-03-18T11:21:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T16:21:31","slug":"architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Architecture for everyone \u2013 how one start-up design firm thinks beyond the building"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bethel Habte<\/p>\n

During a presentation at Creative Mornings, a free monthly conference and networking event, architect Katherine Darnstadt pulled up a photo of people waiting in line for designer cupcakes at a food truck on a freezing Chicago afternoon. She followed that photo with one of people waiting in line for fresh produce at a decommissioned transit authority bus her firm redesigned to serve communities in food deserts across the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cSame day, different parts of the city,\u201d she told a crowd of nearly 200 people. \u201cThat\u2019s the dichotomy that we do have in this city and we work right at that gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darnstadt, 33, is a Chicago native and the founder of architecture firm Latent Design<\/a>, once an LLC, but now an Illinois\u00a0Benefit Corporation. Benefit corporations are a new designation for companies that include a social good within their charter and comply with standards measuring social responsibility. Illinois is one of 27 states that recognize the designation.<\/p>\n

Darnstadt\u2019s firm specializes in human-centered design, merging traditional architectural practices with social activism.<\/p>\n

When she began the firm in 2010, she had $10,000 and a laptop. After earning her architecture license and losing her job in recession lay-offs in quick succession, she took an apprehensive jump into entrepreneurship with the belief that it wouldn\u2019t last forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was plan B,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll just start an architecture firm and it will make me through a year and then somebody\u2019s going to hire me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But five years later, Darnstadt\u2019s Latent Design is still here. She turned a profit in two years, hired two employees and now generates more than $200,000 in revenues. On the way, Darnstadt\u2019s been named one of Crain\u2019s Chicago Business 40 under 40<\/a>, received the American Institute of Architects National Young Architects Honor Award<\/a>, and was listed among GOOD Magazine\u2019s 100 Social Impact Visionaries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Architect<\/a>
Architect Katherine Darnstadt presents at Creative Mornings, a free networking event.\u00a0(Bethel Habte\/Medill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The small firm dedicated itself to its community-minded mission from the outset. Some of the first clients were non-profits and community organizations on the west and south sides of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend so much time focusing on the object of the building,\u201d she said in an interview in her bright Ukrainian Village office suite. \u201cSo how do you make sure the building impacts the block that it\u2019s on, the neighborhood that it\u2019s in and the people that inhabit it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Darnstadt said the firm has also attracted private clients who \u201cbelieve in the public mission of those public projects that we\u2019ve worked on before.\u201d<\/p>\n

One private client, David Zoltan, \u201cFleet Admiral and leader\u201d of Geek Bar Chicago, worked with Darnstadt on a design concept for the bar’s\u00a0new location. He commended Darnstadt for her technical ability and ear for the clientele she works with.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has an amazing idea of what works functionally and what works aesthetically,\u201d Zoltan said. \u201cIt feels fun. And for us, fun is a big deal \u2013 we\u2019re designing a bar for geeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013 Latent Design helped create a pedestrian space with wooden seating and foliage over two former parallel parking spaces in Andersonville. In the same year the firm designed Kusanya Caf\u00e9 in Englewood using salvaged material and vintage features to help founders create a \u201csafe haven on a strict budget.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDesign can bring an emotional connection and awareness of our informal economies.\u201d
\n-Katherine Darnstadt, Latent Design<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The firm has worked for five years\u00a0on projects through the Architecture for Humanity\u2019s ACTIVATE! Public Space design competition for five years. The competition challenged participants to repurpose underused public spaces with an installation that would last one year and cost under $1,000.<\/p>\n

The firm’s\u00a0design idea in 2010 was a modular garden created\u00a0from bright red plywood boxes in a vacant lot in Little Village. The installation was such a success that the neighborhood raised $100,000 and gained the legal right to make it a public community garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesign can bring an emotional connection and awareness of our informal economies,\u201d she said. \u201cYou connect with people at such a level that you understand what the building and the space serves. It doesn\u2019t serve the person with the checkbook, it serves the whole entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though “sustainable” is the fashionable buzzword around design, Darnstadt takes it a step further to include not only the materials used to produce the structures, but the community that will interact with the finished product.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I talk about a sustainable system, I\u2019m talking about all of those other aspects,\u201d she said. \u201cDid we train any new people? Did we create new jobs? Were we able to leverage donated materials? Were we able to create an educational curriculum? Were we able to impact youth? What else have we done?\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking on a public mission also means wading through politics, said Latent Design employee Tina Kress. The election of Gov. Bruce Rauner meant grant money the firm was expecting for new projects is now frozen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s that political climate that seems really abstract sometimes, but can very much affect what we\u2019re doing on a day-to-day basis,\u201d Kress said.<\/p>\n

But there are shortcuts in bureaucracy. The firm is self-certified, which tells the city that the business is aware of city codes and will comply with them. Though the certification means taking on more liability, Darnstadt said it means the client could get a permit from a city in a week rather than close to three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we got it we would lose projects,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would come down to the wire and they would ask us versus other firms if we were self-certified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Architect and Creative Mornings attendee Karen Rigg said that as a typical architect she doesn\u2019t reach this level of the compassion for the users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how you\u2019re taught in school to think about design, it just doesn\u2019t always necessarily work out that way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rigg cited her own affinity for vacations and her mortgage as limits to how mission-oriented she could be in her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I think that level of compassion doesn\u2019t necessarily mesh with money,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rigg\u2019s colleague Felix Martinez commended Darnstadt for bringing architecture to mass audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh design sometimes is not experienced by the every day person,\u201d he said. \u201cIn this industry you have to pay to play sometimes\u2026It\u2019s good that she\u2019s doing what she\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: The Lakeview Chamber of Commerce commissioned Latent Design to create the “Lakeview East People Spot<\/a>,” a seating area made in two parallel parking spots to serve as a respite from traffic-heavy North Clark Street.(Katherine Darnstadt\/Latent Design)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bethel Habte During a presentation at Creative Mornings, a free monthly conference and networking event, architect Katherine Darnstadt pulled up a photo of people waiting in line for designer cupcakes at a food truck on a freezing Chicago afternoon. She followed that photo with one of people waiting in line for fresh produce at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":11166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest"],"yoast_head":"\nArchitecture for everyone \u2013 how one start-up design firm thinks beyond the building - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/architecture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Architecture for everyone \u2013 how one start-up design firm thinks beyond the building - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Bethel Habte During a presentation at Creative Mornings, a free monthly conference and networking event, architect Katherine Darnstadt pulled up a photo of people waiting in line for designer cupcakes at a food truck on a freezing Chicago afternoon. 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