“The Case for Truly Public Housing” at the National Public Housing Museum

The National Public Housing Museum in Chicago is opening its doors this weekend in a new space dedicated to the histories, policies, and people that have shaped public housing in the United States.

One of the inaugural installations, “Paradoxes of Public Housing: The Case of Millers River,” is based on “The Case for Truly Public Housing,” an article by Susanne Schindler and Chris Moyer, published in Places in December 2022. In their article, Schindler and Moyer focus on a municipal authority in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that has deftly negotiated the creeping privatization of public housing in America.

As Schindler and Moyer argue, in their article: “Ultimately, what’s needed is a new narrative that reclaims ‘public housing’ from its negative associations, that asserts the value of housing as a public good, and that establishes truly public housing — funded, developed, owned, and operated by public agencies — as beneficial not only to the residents who are directly served but to society as a whole.”

The authors were invited to create the installation after museum staff read their article and found that it offered a new and productive way to talk about architecture in relation to public housing.

“The invitation from the museum gave Chris and me, in collaboration with Sarah Dunham of MTWTF and filmmaker Ryan Clancy, the exciting opportunity to translate some of the wonky, essential details from our Places article into visual form on the museum walls,” Schindler told us.

“The Case of Millers River” is the first in what will be a series of installations at the National Public Housing Museum demonstrating creative commitment to public housing that is better designed and maintained, more generous and humane.

We hope you’ll read the article in Places, and plan a visit to the museum in Chicago. Entry is free and open to all.