Winners Announced for the DuSable Park — Design Competition

Designers were challenged to design their vision for the future of DuSable Park in downtown Chicago.

Winners Announced for the DuSable Park — Design Competition
Credit: Andrei de Morais de Souza

How would you craft the future of a new park in downtown Chicago? DuSable Park, a long-ignored dirt parcel in downtown Chicago, is on the verge of being transformed into a vibrant urban park that celebrates history and enhances the neighborhood. What do you think its future should look like?

Designers were challenged to design their vision for the future of DuSable Park. The best designs focused on practical, interactive, and sustainable solutions that improve people’s quality of life.

As part of the competition, participants gathered feedback, using Engage, on their design and how to improve them for maximum positive impact.

Grand Prize Winner

Congratulations to Andrei de Morais de Souza for his winning competition entry!

Credit: Andrei de Morais de Souza

Andrei's design as an outstanding example of converting a vacant piece of land into a vibrant urban destination. It incorporated many dynamic elements like natural landscaping, functional sculpture, and even light commercial spaces.

The design balanced a bold vision with the practical and everyday elements of a great park. Open space that is functional for locals was juxtaposed with interactive elements that may become popular tourist destinations. This mixture of uses is an excellent example of planning for the future of a community.

Credit: Andrei de Morais de Souza

The judges found the design to be a bold yet realistic vision for the future of DuSable Park and an excellent example of listening to the community and creating a solution that can inspire action.

See the full design here.

Designer's Choice Award

As part of this competition, we held a public voting session where fellow designers could vote for their top 3 designs. We had over 800 verified votes from designers around the world.

Credit: Kareem Anam, Ekram Al-ghashm, Sumaia Asham

Congratulations to Kareem Anam, Ekram Al-ghashm, Sumaia Asham from Sana'a University for winning the Designer's Choice Award!

Their design is a beautiful mix of color, interactive spaces, and landscaping. It's no surprise that their design was popular with voters. The waterfront seating and lounge areas were nicely balance with active walking and light commercial spaces.

Credit: Kareem Anam, Ekram Al-ghashm, Sumaia Asham

See their full design here.


Want to enter a design competition?

Engage is a new tool for anyone to gather feedback. Use it to harness the wealth of knowledge within your community and gather important insights.

We host competitions to explore how community engagement can inspire, connect, and enrich lives. 

View our competitions here.

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