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Chicago’s Bid to Reinvent the Corner Store

The South Side neighborhood of Englewood puts a healthy food market at the center of a community-led “urban Marshall Plan” built to combat poverty. 

The Go Green Fresh Market is designed to be far more than a convenient place to pick up groceries: It’s the cornerstone of a green campus of housing, retail, and services aimed at improving public health in Chicago’s South Side.    

The Go Green Fresh Market is designed to be far more than a convenient place to pick up groceries: It’s the cornerstone of a green campus of housing, retail, and services aimed at improving public health in Chicago’s South Side.  

 

Rendering courtesy Wheeler Kearns Architects

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When it’s completed, the corner grocery store at 63rd and Racine will look a lot different than the other carryouts and bodegas dotting this section of Englewood, on Chicago’s South Side. 

Designed by Wheeler Kearns Architects and developed by local nonprofit Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), the Go Green Fresh Market will essentially be a miniature supermarket across 3,000 square feet, with heaps of storage and two walk-in fridges. Floor-to-ceiling glass and will open up the store to the streetfront, putting the food on display, where its emphasis on fresh produce will be obvious — a rarity for corner stores in Englewood, or anywhere else.