A unique approach to affordable housing for artists

Artspace, which describes itself as “America’s leading nonprofit real estate developer for the arts,” is a unique organization nationally. Based in Minneapolis, the nonprofit has 57 projects in 32 cities, 22 states, the District of Columbia, and a tribal community, totaling more than 2,000 units. Its mission is to find beautiful old buildings needing rehabilitation and preserve them for artists as affordable housing. 

In doing so, Artspace addresses three challenges that nearly every city faces: the preservation of irreplaceable architecture, the support of artists to promote unique culture, and the construction of affordable housing. Cities are lucky if they find organizations that competently address any of those goals, let alone all three together. 

In 2023, the Pullman Artspace Lofts in Chicago, won a CNU Charter Award for Artspace and Stantec Architecture. 

Now, The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) has awarded Artspace the 2024 Gindroz Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing. The award, named after New Urbanism pioneer and cofounder of Urban Design Associates Ray Gindroz, is in its third year recognizing excellence in the design and implementation of affordable housing in the classical tradition. Artspace demonstrates the diversity of strategies to address America’s affordable housing problems. They are also focused on urbanism in cities large and small—and even transit-oriented suburbs like Silver Spring, Maryland.

The Warren Building in Michigan City, Indiana, completed by Artspace in 2016, offers a great example of how the nonprofit can impact a city. The small city on Lake Michigan lost population for four decades until it grew in the 2010s, partly because of a dramatic downtown turnaround. The catalyst was the Art Deco Warren Building, considered one of the finest buildings in Northern Indiana when it was constructed in 1924. It served as a hotel and locale for important retailers. 

The Warren Building was vacant for decades before Artspace converted it to 44 artist lofts and ground-floor retail, using $10 million in federal tax credits. The Artspace Uptown Artist Lofts were fully occupied within a year, and vacant storefronts in the city of 32,000 people were soon filled. 

“Artspace checks a whole series of important boxes—How to bring in the creative community, maintain buildings that create a sense of place, and provide affordable housing,” says Eric Osth, who chaired ICAA’s Gindroz Award panel. “Every city in the US has a big old building that could be adaptively reused.” Osth, an architect and chairman of UDA, adds: “Their rehabilitation work is gorgeous.”

The Pullman Artspace Lofts in the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago is a great example. Artspace acquired and renovated two 140-year-old historic structures and added a third building between them to create 38 homes where artists can live and work. All the living spaces are affordable and accessible. The project also contains a public art gallery and event space so that artists can showcase their work. “The social and cultural impacts of the programming at the art gallery and community event space and having Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives as the operator serve as stabilizing anchors to the community,” observed the CNU Charter Award jury last year.

Another example is El Barrio’s Artspace PS109 in East Harlem, which transformed an abandoned public school building into an arts facility with 89 units of affordable live/work space and 10,000 square feet of complementary space for arts organizations. 

In addition to the renovation work, Artspace builds anew—evident in the middle Pullman Artspace Lofts building and a four-story mixed-use building scheduled for a 2025 opening in Utica, New York, among other projects.

Artspace began in 1979 as an advocate for artists, but switched to developer a decade later—when the need for this service was clear. The first live/work project opened in St. Paul in 1992. Cities that think they are good candidates for an Artspace project can contact the firm. Typically, they investigate feasibility of projects in 15 to 20 cities and towns annually. 

The Gindroz Award is given to one organization annually. Previous recipients were the City of Santa Barbara, California, and Union Studio in Providence, Rhode Island. The ICAA panel “considers the unique challenges of designing and building high-quality affordable housing, project contexts, community engagement, social impact, and commitment to building neighborhoods for all.”