In Chicago, a Youth Center Woven Into Its Community (And Transit System)

Nestled into Chicago’s north side Lakeview neighborhood, a five-story, brick-clad structure lies sandwiched between the busy Irving Park Road thoroughfare and the Chicago Transit Authority’s quad-track Sheridan Street Station. This is the Broadway Youth Center, an addition to the Windy City that aims to provide for the physical and emotional well-being of at-risk LGBTQI+ youth while taking advantage of the project’s neighboring Red Line L station. In the context of transit-oriented development, housing often dominates the discussion. The Broadway Youth Center, however, emphasizes the potential of other transit-adjacent typologies, and the architectural possibilities they present.

The 17,780-square-foot facility is operated by Howard Brown Health, a Chicago-based healthcare nonprofit which has been serving the local LGBTQI+ community since the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. The former Broadway Youth Center, opened in 2004, was a small day shelter for LGBTQI+ teens. When Howard Brown purchased a nearby infill parcel to build its first ground-up facility, the organization turned to local firm Wheeler Kearns Architects to translate the nonprofit’s mission into the architecture and take advantage of the unique opportunities the site presented. “The elevated track of the [CTA] Red Line impinges on the site on the south end, so the Sheridan L station is right there looking at the back of the building,” explains Wheeler Kearns project architect Noah Luken, AIA. “This was a chance to develop a building that encompasses [Howard Brown’s] identity and have it be visible from the train.”

In addition to making the center easily accessible via public transportation, sharing a doorstep with the L allowed Howard Brown to optimize its new site. The center’s proximity to the station—along with re-zoning completed by the site’s previous owner—meant that the building was freed from parking minimums that plague many North American neighborhoods. Without a requirement to sacrifice square footage for parking, the project offers “more space for social services and clinic space, things that are important not just for the neighborhood but the wider community,” Luken says.

At ground level, patrons are greeted by an environment more akin to a local café than a healthcare facility, a move resulting from trauma-informed design principals that consider the “bad associations with institutions [common among LGBTQ youth],” Luken recalls. “We attempted to reduce the threshold of entry.”

Moving vertically through the building, patrons can find healthcare space on the first two floors, administrative offices on the third floor, and social zones on the top two floors. The more intimate programs on the lower levels, such as private counseling rooms, are expressed on the façade’s fenestration with simple punched openings.

On the uppermost floors, expansive triple-paned glazing on the south side reveals a double-height hangout and dance space. The apertures flood the interior with natural light while providing panoramic views of the city. But these larger windows also become a canvas for an exterior video projection visible from the adjacent Sheridan station platforms, creating an “interactive piece of environmental art … an opportunity to make a little impression on those commuters passing by,” Luken says. Working with local digital artist Liviu Pasare, the piece can be customized by future visitors to the Youth Center. “The plan wasn’t to have one artist be there, but to make a framework for future art,” Luken says.

Another symbolic feature of the building’s façade is the unique use of brick, a staple material in Chicago.. Varied masonry patterns suggest a quilt, a concept that “resonated with the leadership at Howard Brown” Luken says. “Even though it didn’t evoke [the AIDS quilt] directly, it had a similar feel.” In addition to referencing an icon of the LGBTQ community, the motif is also a love letter to the cultural diversity of Chicago and its “knitting together into a cohesive whole,” Luken says. “Howard Brown has been one of the organizations that’s helped that knitting occur over the last decade.”

Since commencing operations in 2021, the Broadway Youth Center has welcomed visitors with ease thanks to its proximity to Sheridan station and design strategies that integrate the center’s external built environment with its internal purpose. “As a citywide resource, the transit connection has made it really valuable…these young people are coming from all over,” Luken says.