Urban Innovations is supporting the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, a first-of-its-kind institution describing the experience of living in public housing from the residents’ point of view. The museum opened in April of 2025 after completing a comprehensive adaptive reuse project of the last remaining building of the historic Jane Addams Homes on Chicago’s Near West Side.
The museum staff was Urban Innovations’ tenant at 625 North Kingsbury for seven years while they worked to design, develop and build the new museum. In March of 2025, Urban Innovations and 625 North Kingsbury hosted the National Public Housing Museum’s exhibition- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, an exhibition inspired by Matthew Desmond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Admission to the exhibition was free to the public.
Upon opening, Howard Conant and his family, founders of Urban Innovations, provided a financial gift to support programming at the museum. In addition to public exhibits and events, the National Public Housing Museum also supports an Empowerment Hub and a Cultural Workforce Development Program.
