Chicago’s Third Places

Interactive Storytelling & Design

Reported & Designed for WBEZ.

Why “Third Places”?

As a college student living near Chicago and coming from the suburbs of Southern California, I’d always felt the difficulty of finding and forging a community outside of the school setting.

More specifically, with the rise of AI and ever-growing reliance on technology, I realized that my peers and I craved spaces where we could create alongside a community at a low cost, if any at all.

What happened to Chicago’s third places?

Reading through articles related to third places, I found that such spaces have decreased considerably, especially for youth, over the past decades.

So began the search to help young people like myself find a space to unleash their creative energy.

Diving into third places

After conversations with my supervisor, I decided to format this piece as a combination of a reported story followed by a curated guide that readers could browse through when searching for a third place.

I wanted to ensure that the guide would be easy to navigate with a clean interface and relevant search filters while upholding a playful, lighthearted tone through the design.

The article, designed as an interactive piece with photos and animations, would serve as a launching point, telling readers about the third-place scene in Chicago. What are third places? Why are they important? Do third places exist in Chicago?

Phase One: Reporting

Research
→ Internet browsing: reddit, social media (Instagram), using keywords to narrow down on search (“art,” “crafts,” “free”)
→ Talking to people: peers, friends, reporters in the newsroom
→ What are your go-to third places in Chicago?

Interviews
→ Experts & leaders of organizations in Chicago

Fact-checking
→ Reaching out to each individual third place to confirm information like hours, address, etc.

ArchieML
→ Reformatted the reported story to be transferred to web format during development process