CommonsForgotten lots. Extraordinary places.
We reshape neglected concrete and abandoned infrastructure into public spaces where strangers become neighbors — working within the budget and grant realities of cities.
This place does not exist yet
Watch it breathe.
An abandoned rail yard. Two landscape architects. One argument.
Maya Chen and Diego Restrepo stand in the Garfield Yards, Chicago. 14 acres of cracked asphalt. Diego says it's impossible. Maya says that's the point.
The first pitch failed. The council laughed. We kept the slides.
Chicago Parks District, 11:00 AM. The rendering goes up. Three aldermen leave. One stays. She becomes our first champion — and our harshest critic.
Forty-seven sticky notes. Six arguments. One shared vision.
The Garfield community workshop runs four hours over. Residents want a farmers market. Kids want a skate bowl. Elders want shade. We find the overlap.
First shovel. First photograph. First time it felt real.
Groundbreaking, Garfield Yards. The EPA grant clears. $2.3M to transform 14 acres. A woman named Dolores brings tamales. We eat standing in the dirt.
First child. First swing. First morning it was no longer ours.
Garfield Yards opens. A girl named Amara is the first to run through the rain garden. Her mother cries. We understand, for the first time, what we are actually building.
Three cities. Three neglected lots. Three communities that said yes.
Detroit. Pittsburgh. Baltimore. Each city different. Each lot forgotten for different reasons. Each community workshop loud in the same way.
A highway overpass. No one thought it would work. It works.
The I-94 Amphitheater, Detroit. Carved from the dead space beneath an elevated highway. 800-seat capacity. First show: a free jazz concert. Standing room only.
Twelve projects. Four cities. One hundred and forty thousand square feet of reclaimed ground.
What began as an argument in a rail yard is now a body of proof. Every neglected lot starts to look like the obvious next chapter.
Neglected lots, transformed.
47 sites across 12 US cities. $84M in grants secured. 140,000 square feet reclaimed.
Rail Yard → Community Park
Garfield Yards
Highway Underpass → 800-seat Venue
I-94 Amphitheater
Parking Garage → Stormwater Park
Penn Ave Rain Garden
Vacant Corridor → Pedestrian Boulevard
Sandtown Streetscape
Industrial Waterfront → Public Promenade
Millbrook Waterfront
Five steps. No shortcuts.
Community engagement isn't a box we check. It's the structural material. Every project starts with listening and ends with stewardship.
Site Reading
We spend one day on every site before we open a laptop. The cracks, the drainage, the sightlines, the neighbors who already use the space. Infrastructure tells the truth.
1 full day minimum per siteCommunity Workshop
Not a presentation. A working session. Sticky notes, arguments, coffee, kids drawing on butcher paper. We leave with a shared vision or we do it again.
3–5 workshops per projectGrant Architecture
We know EPA, HUD, NEA, DCNR, and 40 other funding bodies. We write the narrative that makes the numbers make sense. $84M secured to date.
$84M in grants securedPublic Hearing Rendering
A rendering that turns a hostile hearing room hopeful. We know the difference between a diagram that informs and an image that moves a vote.
Hearing-tested visualsBuild & Steward
We stay through construction and return after opening. The first season reveals what no rendering predicted. We adjust. The space earns its life.
2-year post-opening supportYour neglected lot is the obvious next chapter.
Tell us about your site. We respond within 48 hours with an honest assessment — not a sales pitch.
Community Engagement Toolkit
The exact workshop facilitation guide, sticky-note protocols, and community mapping methods we use on every project. Used by 340+ parks directors.
“The rendering Commons brought to our public hearing changed the room. We went from 40 opponents to 12. The council voted 8-1.”
“They understood our grant timeline before we finished explaining it. The Penn Ave application was the strongest we'd ever submitted.”
