Join us at the Hull House Museum for All Magnificent and Wild, the first public presentation of research developed by advanced graduate students at the UIC School of Architecture under Associate Professor Francesco Marullo. The research investigates the conditions for a “retroactive manifesto” of the residential hotel—an architectural type at once elusive, vernacular, subtle yet impudent, and now nearly extinct in Chicago and beyond—in order to reimagine the future of affordable housing. A broad spectrum of case studies will be presented, from everyday single-room-occupancy hotels and rooming houses to hybrid forms such as home clubs and working-palace hotels—many of which disappeared with their buildings, leaving only fragments like newspaper descriptions, commercial flyers, historical photographs, and fire-insurance maps. Like a forensic or archaeological investigation, these traces have been assembled into plans and layouts, reconstructing a hypothetical yet plausible history through a reversed design process, then used to propose refurbishments, expansions, or complete redesigns of existing SRO hotels across the Chicago metropolitan area. Scholars and practitioners involved in the preservation and rehabilitation of SROs will join the event at the Hull-House Museum to broaden the discussion and connect this research to ongoing efforts to sustain affordable housing in the city.
