About this Event
*The Metropolitan Planning Council is generously hosting us for this session. In order to access the building, RSVP is required no later than Wednesday morning, June 24. You can RSVP through eventbrite or by emailing [email protected].*
Join us for the next gathering of the Chicago City Builders Book Club!
This ongoing series brings together professional city builders to discuss Chicago-centric books that explore the city’s urban, political, social, and physical landscape.
This month, we’re reading Chicago on the Make: Power and Inequality in a Modern City by Andrew J. Diamond — a sweeping history of how Chicago became a global city, and how power, race, politics, and economic development shaped the deep inequalities that still define it today.
Diamond traces Chicago’s transformation from an industrial city of rail yards, factories, stockyards, and ethnic neighborhoods into a modern global metropolis. Along the way, he challenges familiar explanations centered only on machine politics, instead showing how racial politics, downtown business interests, civic ambition, and redevelopment agendas helped produce a city of profound divides.
We’ll gather for lively conversation, local snacks, and civic camaraderie with fellow planners, designers, policymakers, advocates, builders, researchers, and curious Chicagoans.
About the book
Chicago on the Make examines the forces that made modern Chicago: political machines, neighborhood organizing, racial conflict, downtown growth coalitions, deindustrialization, globalization, and the city’s persistent struggle over who gets to benefit from progress.
For city builders, the book offers a powerful framework for thinking about the Chicago we work in today. How did public and private power shape the city’s geography of opportunity? How did race and inequality become embedded in urban policy and development? What does Chicago’s rise as a “world-class” city reveal about the tradeoffs of growth? And what responsibilities do today’s planners, designers, policymakers, and advocates carry in a city still shaped by those choices?
Come ready to discuss the book, connect it to your own work, and think together about what Chicago’s modern history can teach us about building a more equitable urban future.
Who should attend
This event is for people who care about Chicago and the forces that shape it, including planners, designers, policymakers, advocates, developers, transportation professionals, architects, civic leaders, students, and curious city lovers.
No formal expertise required — just read what you can and come ready for a thoughtful, spirited conversation.
Hosts
Sophie Blumenstein, Planner, Journey, [email protected]
Lauren Mattern, Founder & TDM Lead, Journey, [email protected]
Thomas Bamonte, Senior Advisor, Metropolitan Planning Council
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Metropolitan Planning Council, 140 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, United States
USD 0.00
