Good City Group

We work to create equitable and sustainable
spaces at the hyper-local scale.

Mission Statement

About the
Good City Group

The Good City Group develops inventive, equitable approaches to placemaking, urban design, and environmental justice at the hyper-local scale to improve everyday experiences for residents. We seed imaginative ideas for placemaking that create opportunities within communities and inspire social innovations for improved daily living. With our community partners, we explore issues, create interactive experiences, and pilot solutions from multi-disciplinary perspectives of urban planning, design, art, architecture, public transit systems and technology.

Formed in March 2013, the Good City Group came together around the idea of how the “good city” can inform our roles as civic innovators who care deeply about Chicago’s future.

The group was born out of a collective desire for cross-disciplinary, experimental proposals that affect our everyday experiences. We explore inventive, equitable approaches to placemaking, urban design, and environmental justice at the hyper-local scale that can have a big impact for residents.

We come from diverse practice areas with a central premise that design professions should be integral collaborators with the community, planners, and policymakers to envision and implement strategies for healthy, resilient cities.

We operate with inclusivity and respect through projects created collaboratively in the public interest that foster a sense of community agency, shared meaning, and shared ownership of public space.

We want to give special thanks and tribute to Victor Margolin (1941-2019), designer, author and Professor Emeritus of Design History at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Victor was a catalyst for the start and early development of Good City Group. He deeply believed in integrating design into all level of governments and finding a “framework to use as the basis for creating changes in the city's infrastructure” (Sciencedirect.com). Thank you Victor, for your wisdom and generosity.

Who We Are

  • Benet has lived, learned and worked in the Chicago area for more than 35 years. He has worked in both the public and private sector in planning, transportation, and architecture. He has biked every paved trail near Chicago more than once. Benet is the Transit Manager for the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways. He is a founding member of the Good City Group.

  • Kevin is an Associate Professor of Design and a Visiting Professor in the Fashion Studies program at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches in the product development track. He is a product and interaction designer and author, with a background in industrial design, time-based media, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. He is a founding member of the Good City Group.

  • Mark's corporate career in Chicagoland has ranged from packaged foods to special education, among so many others. Since 2008, he has advised startups on strategies for a future energy paradigm. He and his wife love to swim in Lake Michigan, run a small nonprofit, grow peaches, and ride their tandem bike all over our great city. He is a founding member of the Good City Group.

  • Nilay (PLA, ASLA) is a landscape architect and urban designer based in Chicago with several years of experience in design practice and education in the United States, Africa, and Asia. Born into an immigrant family, he has always been fascinated with parks, streets, and informal settlements as shared spaces for all that participate in cities. Nilay is a full time faculty member in Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture and founding member of the Good City Group.

  • Odile is an architect with a practice in Chicago, IL, and Paris, France. She teaches architecture and scenography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She likes to always have something to say when someone asks her "What’s Good?” She is a founding member of the Good City Group.

  • Susanne brings a background in urban and cultural planning, community health, and design thinking. Her work creates alliances and civic infrastructure for healthy, connected communities. Currently, she is Program Director at Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago. Susanne is a founding member of the Good City Group.

  • Thom is a Chicagoan currently working as an architect in Architecture Research Office.  He has worked extensively in cultural history and natural history exhibit design in the US and China. Thom’s interest lies in tactical urban interventions that projects collective ownership and provoke conversations on local infrastructure. Thom graduated from Columbia University GSAPP with a master's degree in Architecture and School of The Art Institute of Chicago with a bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture.

  • Traci is a community organizer, artist, and designer. She deeply believes in working for and with people to foster empowered, cohesive communities. She is Associate Professor of Architectural Design at James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, VA. She became a member of the Good City Group in 2020.