Depaving is… LIBERATION. FUTURE BUILDING. COLLECTIVE ACTION.

The 21st century is a time calling on all of us to regenerate the earth. The future for cities and communities is not paved in asphalt.

Our Mission-Vision-Action

Depave Chicago is a collaborative initiative to transform paved land into living surfaces. Together, we work to co-create and share information and tools for rethinking and regenerating urban land to support life for people, water, plants, and wildlife. We envision our urban neighborhoods and communities transformed—creating green where there’s gray—everywhere children play, people breathe, families and friends gather, tree roots nourish soil, rainwater touches earth, and where animals, insects, and birds flourish.
Depave Chicago is founded on urban landscape research done collaboratively with communities, landscape architects, geologists, soil scientists, engineers, ecologists, and artists. Together we have explored and mapped soils of the Chicago region, modeled depaving and stormwater retrofit strategies, integrated climate change forecasts, spurred community infrastructure investment, been inspired by artists, dug a lot of holes, created diagrams and action plans, and learned how to cut up pavement.
Depave Chicago uses co-design practices hand in hand with communities and partners to imagine new futures and to depave sites in order to realize those futures. We relish in revealing and celebrating site histories (buried beneath the pavement!), designing for rainwater, bringing endemic and healing plant communities back into restored soils, and seeing kids (and adults!) joyful and connected to the natural world.

Where to Depave Chicago?

What is Depave Chicago?

Why Depave
Chicago?

DEPAVE CHICAGO PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS

Depave Chicago is a volunteer-driven, non-profit program. The start-up of Depave Chicago is funded by a Resilient x Nature Grant from the Walder Foundation. Depave Chicago is founded and managed by University of Illinois Water Lab, headed by Associate Professor Mary Pat McGuire, and affiliated with the Department of Landscape Architecture, UIUC. Our location in the downtown Chicago Studio is generously provided by the College of Fine & Applied Arts, UIUC.

SPECIAL THANKS!…..
Depave Chicago is guided by the amazing Katya Reyna and Ted Labbe of Depave (Portland) whose mentoring and teaching not only lay the groundwork for our program but fuel our ethos and passion for this work. Katya and Ted, thank you!

https://www.tpl.org/

We’re grateful for support and advice from the following organizations during the early years of our program:
Chicago Region Trees Initiative
Greater Chicago Watershed Alliance
Neighbors for Environmental Justice
Openlands
Trust for Public Land
US Forest Service

Gratitude to our Collaborators over the years for their support and
contributions leading to Depave Chicago

To become a supporter or partner of Depave Chicago,please contact Mary Pat McGuire at mpm1@illinois.edu. Thank you in advance!

SUPPORT OUR PILOT PROJECT!

We’re currently seeking funding (both individual donors and corporate sponsors) to support the implementation of our pilot depave project at The Montessori School of Englewood. Your donations will help pay for design, project management, site prep, equipment, purchasing soil and plants, contractor services (asphalt hauling & recycling), volunteer support, and education programming! Thank you in advance!

Land Acknowledgement

Depave Chicago, located in Chicago, Illinois, sits on the unceded lands of the Council of Three Fires, the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi Nations, as well as the tribes of the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, Fox, Kickapoo, and Illinois Nations. Controlled occupation of these lands through land cessions and forced removal of Indigenous people occurred through the Treaty of Greenville (1795), the Treaty of St. Louis (1816), and the Indian Removal Act (1830). The histories of Indigenous peoples and all communities throughout the Chicago region must be acknowledged in the work of Depave Chicago. We must honor and celebrate traditions and care for the land and the waters of the region. And we must contribute to the work of restoring relationships among land, water, people, and all living species and entities of the region for remaining Indigenous communities and for all people who live here.