The Parke Teen Lounge Aims To Make Youth Feel ‘Safe, Seen And Welcomed’ In Hyde Park

HYDE PARK — When architect Taylor Staten visits Hyde Park around the time schools dismiss for the day, it can get “crazy,” she said. Young people are energetic after a day of classes, and since “business owners aren’t always happy” to have teens come in — some even banning unaccompanied minors during after-school hours — they have few options for socializing and gathering, Staten said. A lack of welcoming “third spaces” for South Side teens has driven Staten to create the Parke — a café, lounge and art gallery — in Hyde Park, she said. The membership-based lounge for students aged 13-18 is planned to open next year, and will offer a space for young people to spend unstructured social time six days a week. “The overall idea is that teens need a place to come that’s not over-programmed — to hang out, to be together [and] not in the street,” said Staten, owner of design firm TnS Studio. “It’s a place for fun first, where they can be safe, seen and welcomed.” Staten has identified a 3,400-square-foot storefront in Hyde Park for the lounge, though she declined to share its location and has not yet signed a lease, she said. She plans to secure the space and begin renovations by early 2027, with an eye on opening for the 2027-28 school year. The café’s food menu will be handled by 7323 Chicago Café, a shipping container café in a park in Staten’s home neighborhood of Woodlawn, and Brie’s Cuisine, run by a friend of Staten from their days as Morgan Park High School students. The Parke will help support 7323 Chicago Café owner Marquinn Gibson through the winter while giving Brie’s Cuisine its first physical location, Staten said. Urban Growers Collective, a Black- and woman-led nonprofit farm in South Chicago, will supply produce, she said. The art gallery will feature commissioned works from local creatives, with a quarterly call for new submissions. The lounge will also host mental wellness sessions through a partnership with Mental Health Meets Hip-Hop, Staten said. The Parke plans to host a weekly “wind-down” party at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Bronzeville, where high school students with Chicago Public Schools IDs can pay $5 to dance to DJs and shop from local vendors. Despite offering some structure through the mental wellness groups and parties, the Parke will primarily be a place for teens to feel comfortable spending their social time however they please, Staten said. “Everyone wants teens to keep learning, but we can workshop them to death, is what I feel,” she said. “I’m not opposed to workshops, but I do feel there’s a point where you’re over-programming the kids, and [they] get burnt out and frustrated. In the same way adults get burnt out and want to go have fun, that’s what the Parke is.” Chicagoans’ reactions to gatherings of young people — whether or not they become chaotic or violent, as some “teen takeovers” have this year — have underscored a bias against the city’s youth, and its Black teens in particular, Staten said. The Parke will offer teens a space to gather that’s “designed specifically for them” — and will aim to disprove neighbors’ fears about their young neighbors in the process, she said. “Why is a large group of teens scary? I don’t think it should be, especially … if they’re in school and doing the things they need to do,” Staten said. “I think [some residents] just don’t like seeing Black kids together having fun, because it can get rowdy. But at some point we were all teens, and we were all rowdy. “That doesn’t mean they’re destructive. That just means they’re kids.” A community meeting on the planned lounge is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Sidney Agency, 1332 E. 67th St. in Woodlawn. To RSVP, click here. Students and parents from Bret Harte and Murray elementary schools and Kenwood Academy and Hyde Park Academy high schools — the lounge’s target demographic — will be given priority for in-person attendance, Staten said. The venue holds 50 people, and at least 300 had registered as of Tuesday, she said. Those chosen to attend in person will be notified by email, while the meeting will be livestreamed on the Parke’s Instagram page. “I didn’t expect to get so many RSVPs for the community meeting,” Staten said. “So many people reached out to donate services, to donate products — I’m really grateful for everyone that’s on board that sees the vision.” ______________________________________________________________________ Support Local News! Subscribe to Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to gift a subscription, or you can support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation. Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast: Need A Halloween Costume? A Chicago Thrifting Expert Shares Her Secrets Episode play icon Need A Halloween Costume? 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