Introducing the National Public Housing Museum

The planned National Public Housing Museum, expected to open in 2021, will draw attention to a highly contested subject and connect to the relevance provided by contemporary anxieties about housing.

1 minute read

December 5, 2019, 5:00 AM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Chicago, Illinois

Jane Addams Memorial Park in Chicago. | James Andrews1 /

Zach Mortice reports on the organizational principles behind the National Public Housing Museum, expected to open in 2021 on the Near West Side of Chicago.

Mortice's sources for insight into the creation and expected direction for the museum include Crystal Palmer, a former public housing resident and vice chair of the museum's board, and Lisa Lee, the museum’s executive director.

The museum, which is expected to be unabashedly activist, will be located inside the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes, built in the 1930s.

"It took 10 years of administrative wrangling to get the building from the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), and the museum hopes to open in 2021,"according to Mortice. "Since 2010, however, it has been mounting exhibitions at a variety of other venues."

A lot more about the design of the museum, and its expected exhibitions, can be found in the source article.

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