SAIC Faculty Work with Youth to Bring Mini Golf Back to North Lawndale

Haman Cross III, artist and instructor in SAIC's Continuing Studies program and a North Lawndale native, formed the Conservation Architect Team — a group of youth collaborators recruited to envision and design a new 18-hole course in Douglas Park in the West Side neighborhood, reports Block Club Chicago. The students worked with Cross and Eric Hotchkiss, lecturer in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, to design the obstacles that would become part of the 18-hole mini golf course. “This entire project is youth-led, from the concept of the holes and designs of the holes, all the way to the aesthetics of what the props that go on top of the holes look like,” said Hotchkiss to Block Club Chicago. The design of each hole was inspired by a bird species native to Douglas Park.  

The paper-mache models of the designs were presented this past Saturday, and the next phase of the project will see the student's designs developed into permanent structures.