Boxville Marketplace is a campus for small businesses in Bronzeville, Chicago built out of shipping containers. For The Available City’s 18 of a Kind Project, the design team FLYHALF (Adam Maserow and Isabel Strauss) was asked to design portable performance spaces for the campus and to envision the near-future of Boxville’s site. To kick off the design process, FLYHALF worked closely with the Boxville team and The Available City to define a series of design interventions which allow for gathering, playing, and dining throughout the campus.

The rendering above was produced by Image on the Left (Glen Marquardt) to showcase FLYHALF’s carefully designed shade structures, lighting rigs, and canopies, which, alongside the newly installed permeable pavers, create a series of functional and varied spaces from one Boxville plaza to the next.

The images below showcase the first phase of the project - the installation of permeable pavers in Cook’s Corner - and highlight the power a simple gesture of improving a floor can have on an entire network of businesses.