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.