Annette Elliot investigates the complex relationship between the individual and the urban environment, understanding architecture as a contested space of social and political struggle.

Garfield Park highlights the imposing presence of the century-old conservatory looming over the desolate neighborhood of East Garfield Park. A monument to a time before white flight, the architecture of glass and steel stands in sharp contrast to the dilapidated residential housing of the surrounding West Side, entrenched in poverty, crime and violence. Projected light intervenes in the space of the glass dome, forming cracks that reflect the shapes of the 40,000 panes of glass that shattered in the hailstorm of June 30, 2011.

(Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Interior Architecture)