Harris students win policy challenge with plan to revitalize downtown Chicago

Five years after the pandemic hollowed out city centers across the country, a team of master’s students from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy has offered a roadmap to breathe new life into downtown Chicago.

The team recently won the 2024-25 Harris Policy Innovation Challenge—and a $10,000 prize—for a plan built around “culture and connection.” Presented at a Shark-Tank-style pitch event on April 16, the students’ proposal called to make a stretch of Michigan Avenue more pedestrian-friendly by closing it to car traffic between Monroe Street and Wacker Drive, while also creating affordable housing for artists and revamping the city’s 40-block Pedway system with shopping options and other enrichment.

“More than anything, I am so grateful,” said winning team member Samantha Anderson as she celebrated with her teammates Krista Brown, Uchenna Andrew Offorjebe and Ashton Mayo-Beavers.

The challenge, the second Harris competition of its kind, was based on the thematic question of: “What can Chicago do over the next three years to create a thriving downtown for the next 20 years?” 

By leveraging the existing appeal of the “Cultural Mile”—the art- and museum-rich corridor from the Chicago River to Roosevelt Road—the winning team said its plan would “ensure that downtown remains the city's economic engine and cultural heart.”

Drawing inspiration from ideas such as Denver’s 16th Street Mall, the team called to build on key assets including 12 museums, 120 public art installations and $2.25 billion in economic impact from cultural outings. They also sought to leverage the connectivity offered by the 153 bus stops, 40 Divvy stations and 20 CTA and Metra stations currently in the Loop. 

The winning team is now set to showcase its plan to civic leaders across Chicago.

Each of the four finalist teams of master’s students, whittled down from an initial field of more than 20, outlined distinct approaches that Chicago could take to help the Loop recapture its former vibrancy.

The teams pitched to six judges, including World Business Chicago President and CEO Phil Clement, AM/MBA’93; Better Chicago CEO Beth Swanson, MPP’02; and investor David Wells, MBA/MPP’98, who was previously CFO for Netflix.

“The quality of the students’ work was really outstanding,” said Research Professor Justin Marlowe, the director of Harris’ Center for Municipal Finance. Marlowe oversaw the Innovation Challenge, helping participants navigate the process and assembling the Harris alumni who served as coaches and mentors. “I’m very proud of the students.” 

Highlights from the other finalists included a plan from Alison Collard de Beaufort, Melodie Slaughter and Paul Zee-Cheng to build a young professional housing network in office buildings converted for residential use. These affordable co-living spaces would feature private micro-units complemented by shared kitchens, lounges and co-working spaces, with other amenities such as rooftop gardens and fitness centers spread across multiple buildings. 

The plan from Dustin Cather, Haley Dudzinski and Luis Montgomery also called for co-living developments, as well as to extend The 606 elevated park and trail through downtown to Ping Tom Memorial Park—a move that could drive more foot traffic into local businesses. Additionally, they proposed to bring the Chicago motto of "Urbs in Horto," or "City in a Garden,” to life by developing a vertical farm and grocery store in what is currently a parking garage at 211 W. Adams St.

Meanwhile, the team consisting of Marlin Exton, Hannah Flint and Liz Schutz, set its focus on keeping Millennials in the city when they start families, disrupting the usual move to the suburbs. Key to keeping families downtown are ensuring new elementary schools as well as an adequate stock of larger, multi-bedroom apartments and condos.

Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, dean and the Sydney Stein Professor at Harris, said the challenge was an opportunity to “spend a year learning, thinking and analyzing in a really serious and rigorous way, but also at the same time work on a real policy challenge in our community.”

To conduct the challenge, Harris also partnered with UChicago’s Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation.

“This event is taking great ideas from students and trying to bring them out into the world, so it's perfect for us,” said Christopher Berry, director of the institute and the William J. and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor at Harris. “I thought there was a good balance of practicality and outside-the-box thinking at this pitch.”