Up Top Building at Altgeld Gardens, Chicago

A Modernist Community Center

Keck & Keck designed the Up Top Building as two low structures joined by a sweeping roof. The composition created shops and gathering space at a visible entrance to Altgeld Gardens rather than separating commerce from the housing landscape.

For residents, the building's value exceeded its architecture. It was a place for daily errands, informal contact, work, and organizing within a community physically isolated by industry and infrastructure.

Disinvestment And Community Memory

Years of vacancy and deferred care left the Up Top Building as the last vacant structure within the larger Altgeld Gardens property. Its deterioration represented the loss of neighborhood services as much as the decline of a notable modernist building.

The passage between its two sections became a memorial for victims of gun violence. That community-made meaning is part of the building now and cannot be treated as an incidental design obstacle.

A Youth Center In The Historic Shell

By The Hand Club For Kids proposes an after-school center with restored storefronts, a new lobby within the connecting passage, and an addition containing a full-size gym. Present Future Architects designed the project.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved the approximately $23.3 million plan in June 2026. City Council action, financing, construction, and the final memorial treatment remain important milestones.