Yollocalli Arts Reach, a youth-oriented after-school arts initiative of the National Museum of Mexican Art is still settling into its new digs in the Little Village neighborhood. The program occupies a decommissioned two-story-tall firehouse at the corner of West 24th and South Whipple streets.
The project is an unusual exercise in restraint by its architects, one that preserves the character of the old building while allowing Yollocalli’s young users — ages 13 to 24 — to leave their own marks on the design.
“You can see this idea of the architecture getting out of the way,” Civic Projects founder and principal architect Monica Chadha said. “It tries not to be overly prescriptive.”
Chadha led a design team that included Wallin/Gomez Architects Vice President Joanna Ruiz and Yollocalli Executive Director Vanessa Sanchez.
The traditional urban firehouse is an almost perfect neighbor — matched in scale and material to the predominantly residential neighborhood while using subtle details that indicate its status as an official civic structure. The original brick and limestone trim has been cleaned, and the architects have restored the substantial copper cornice on the front face of the building. Windows have been replaced, and the firehouse doors have been swapped out for large glazed openings facing Whipple.
This is the program’s first fully owned space since its inception in 1997; it previously rented spaces, first in Pilsen, then in Little Village. It was not your usual architectural brief: Chadha recalls the design challenge from one young woman they interviewed during the predesign phase: “I want a place that feels like my best friend’s bedroom, but not my best friend’s bedroom,” she said. “I want a space where I can be weird and we can be weird together.”
Vanessa Sanchez is the director of Yollocalli Arts Reach, a youth-oriented after-school arts initiative in a decommissioned and remodeled firehouse at 2358 S. Whipple St. in Chicago on April 16, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Thus, the designers were working with emotions and feelings while answering the question, “What’s a space you could be creative in?”
The answer involved maintaining many of the original firehouse details: glazed brick and tin ceiling on the first level, a spiral stair now headed to nowhere, and even the plugged holes where the fire poles once were (the fire company took those iconic elements with them to their new home just a few blocks away). The two large firehouse doors facing Whipple have been replaced with large glass windows, one of which can be opened to the small exterior plaza at the front that provides a ramped entry and space for gathering in nicer weather. Surprisingly, the low concrete benches do not have the standard issue bumpers that are usually deployed to foil skateboarders. “I encourage skateboarders,” Sanchez said.
The ground floor is predominantly open with a small lobby, an enclosed office, a central event space and a recording booth. An open metal stair toward the rear of the space connects the two floors. The second floor is devoted to four studios with one configured for pottery production with a kiln room. Each studio has windows that look out over the street and interior windows that provide visual access between them. The hall widens at several points to encourage informal gatherings, and a small lounge at the front offers opportunities for unstructured fun.
There’s a definite dichotomy between upstairs and downstairs. “It’s the party on the top here and business on the bottom,” Chadha said.
Color plays a big role throughout the building, with the kids developing the palette. “There’s 17 different paints in here,” Chadha said. And yet many of the walls on the first floor remain white. “We imagine they’re going to decide what they want to put on the walls,” Sanchez said. Not to mention the desire for more stuff throughout the building. They are hoping to install more disco balls to reflect what they had in their previous space.
“It’s about creating a sense of joy and fun,” Sanchez said. “Who doesn’t want disco balls?”
Most of Yollocalli’s staff members are artists or have an arts background. “We’re about having spaces that are malleable because art can squish and change in so many ways, especially with young people because they’re always going to be changing too,” Sanchez said.
Yollocalli’s programs cater to youths between 13 and 24 years old. “We noticed that after high school, they still want support,” Sanchez said. “They still need something to do, places to just be creative and meet new people.” And there is a strong sense of legacy and continuity at Yollocalli; many of the artists involved with the program are alumni. Sanchez is an example; she first came to Yollocalli in 2001 when she had an internship while in college.
The Yollocalli Arts Reach, with its new cornice, is in a decommissioned firehouse at 2358 S. Whipple St. in Chicago, as shown April 16, 2026. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
“I had the struggle between wanting to do something for my community, but wanting to be an artist,” Sanchez said. “Yollo taught me that arts and community can be together and that artists can serve a community and that the arts can serve a community.”
Yollocalli’s new neighbors have come knocking on the door to inquire about its activities. “It became apparent once we got in here (that) we need to do programming for other age ranges, too,” Sanchez said. “So, we hired a new person who’s going to focus on seniors, families, (and) adults.” But these expanded offerings won’t impede on Yollocalli’s mission to give youths a place of their own to be weird. Sanchez promises that new programs will be relegated to the downstairs space.
The new Yollocalli Arts Reach is a particular type of renovation that should be encouraged throughout the city — rescuing an abandoned civic structure with good bones to serve community-based initiatives. And yet this is the type of building that seems always to be in danger of wanton destruction in Chicago. This is what good development can and should look like whenever possible. As demolition is evidence of civic failure, thoughtful renovation like this is civic triumph.
And the designers have invested a great deal of trust through their open-ended design decisions: trust in Yollocalli’s young participants and their creativity, trust in the program’s administrators and trust in the Little Village neighborhood. While the design will continue to evolve, early results suggest that this faith is well placed.
Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan’s biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
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