Emmanuel Pratt, “[Re]Constructing Real Estate: The Question of Value”

Sweet Water Foundation (SWF) is a community-rooted, nonprofit organization that practices Regenerative Neighborhood Development to create safe and inspiring spaces and curates healthy, intergenerational communities transforming the ecology of so-called “blighted” neighborhoods. Utilizing a unique blend of urban design, urban agriculture, carpentry, art, and STE(A+)M focused education, the primary objective of SWF’s work is the continued healing of the neighborhood, its land and its people, and re-rooting of the community through a unique intersection across education, agriculture, arts, culture, and housing.

Since 2014, SWF has created a series of urban acupuncture inspired installations that actively re-story and re-construct a neighborhood located at the nexus of Englewood and Washington Park, two African American communities directly impacted by redlining and long standing histories of municipal disinvestment. SWF’s headquarters site has become a dynamic, living campus now known as “The Commonwealth.” The Commonwealth spans four contiguous city blocks and includes more than three acres of urban farmland, open community gardens, a carpentry workshop, two formerly foreclosed homes transformed into live-work-learn spaces, and a timber frame barn that serves as a pavilion for a wide variety of community gatherings for public programming.

For this event with the GSD, Emmanuel will contextualize the historical degeneration vs regeneration of The Commonwealth to present date, lead viewers on a virtual site visit, and share some upcoming developments emerging across a network of value-based partners.