Designing a Better Chicago (DBC) is an annual celebration of work honoring those using design to advance civic good. It highlights the city’s extraordinary design legacy – its local talent, assets, and community. Launched in 2020 by NeoCon and the Design Museum of Chicago, the Design Impact Grant program showcases individuals and organizations, public art, and programs across the city – inviting people to consider the many ways design improves civic life.
Over the past six years, DBC has awarded $200,000 to exceptional innovators who use design to positively impact Chicago communities. Grants facilitate growth and foster a stronger philanthropic community for civic-oriented design.
Now in its second year, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Built Environment Award supports projects that focus on the built environment. At this summer’s DBC awards event, attended by more than 200 people, the Built Environment Award was given to two projects: Eric Hotchkiss for his project Provisions and Floating Museum for Mecca Inflatable.
Provisions transforms a vacant lot in Englewood into a community-designed outdoor kitchen and gathering space, addressing food apartheid and the loss of cultural spaces in Black neighborhoods. With custom cooking tools, solar-powered refrigeration, and fabrication workshops, the project uplifts Afro-diasporic traditions and food sovereignty. Through design rooted in accessibility, storytelling, and mutual aid, Provisions becomes a cultural hearth – nourishing both body and community while modeling a replicable approach to reclaiming public space.
Mecca Inflatable is a mobile design-driven installation that turns underused South and West Side spaces into vibrant civic forums. Acting as a flexible venue for workshops, performances, and public dialogue, it centers accessibility, co-creation, and spatial equity. Each activation is shaped with local partners and designed for quick deployment and deep community engagement. Mecca Inflatable is both a visual landmark and a prototype for inclusive design – redefining public space as a tool for collective transformation.
This year’s NeoCon Design Impact Award recipient was Global Gardens Chicago for their Native Prairie and Pollinator Plant Project. Through the project, Global Gardens will integrate native prairie and pollinator plants into their Albany Park site – boosting vegetable yields, reducing pests naturally, and restoring Illinois’ lost prairie ecosystem. Refugee farmers will lead the effort, drawing on deep agricultural knowledge. The project includes community-designed plant beds, signage, volunteer training, and long-term ecological stewardship, creating a model for resilient, sustainable, and culturally rooted food production in Chicago.
