Publication Date

2024

Placement

First Prize

Class Year

2024

Department

Urban Studies

Advisor

Alan Plattus

Abstract

The West Loop has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last forty years, having re-developed from an impoverished and declining industrial area to Chicago’s fastest-growing real estate market, the city’s technology center, and a model mixed-use neighborhood. Focusing on the displacement of the area’s industrial base from the late 1980s to the current day, this thesis investigates the changing relationship between the City of Chicago, real estate developers, and local businesses and stakeholders to contend that this ongoing re-development process is a form of gentrification often overlooked in urbanist literature and within the narrative of its own transformation. The West Loop’s re-development is indicative of 21st century municipal governments’ pro-development, laissez-faire approach to large-scale, forward-looking urban planning, creating an increasingly larger role for real estate developers to influence how American cities are developing today and for the future.

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