Four arts and design businesses have moved into a newly rehabilitated building in East Garfield Park, opening in a corner location in the neighborhood after a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Business owners Micah Taylor and Tom Livings acquired the building that had been used as a gear factory, and it has been under renovation for over a year. Now, they have opened their four businesses in the 100-year-old building at 2811 W. Fulton St.
The four businesses include Chicago Printworks, a print shop, and Direction Tour Marketing, an arts marketing agency. Taylor is the president of both. Livings is the co-owner of Studio inHaus, an architectural rendering firm and a partner in FlightFX, an aircraft simulator design firm.
Taylor said they bought the 5,700 square-foot building from Overton Chicago Gear, a gear manufacturer, and started renovations in 2023. It took $2 million worth of investments to turn the manufacturing building into the current business space.
“Already, we feel like we’re becoming part of the community as a whole,” Taylor said. “Now, realizing that we’re here, we want to see what’s needed and what we can provide. We’re really looking forward to working with community members to better understand that…our number one priority is to simply be a good neighbor.”
The 2023 Chicago Equitable Transit-Oriented Development grant from the city made up $250,000 of the building’s investment. Access to transit was a big part of the owners’ move into Garfield Park. The grant gives funds for development near transit that is community-led and equitable. The building is a few blocks from the California Green Line stop and the 94 California Avenue bus line.
The operations
Chicago Printworks, owned by Taylor, is a digital print shop that offers printing for banners, posters, signs and flyers. Taylor said Chicago Printworks is a small print shop that offers a human interaction and personal tailoring that is hard to come by in the digital world of online print shops.
The shop creates printworks from small-batch business cards, to major projects for large companies. Appointments can be made online to come into the shop to work on projects face-to-face with their printing team.
“A lot of shops don’t want to turn on the machines for, you know, a small run of 100 programs for a local theater, or 50 posters for an art opening. We’ve really found our place to shine in small-run projects,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s other business, Direction Tour Marketing, is an arts marketing agency that specializes in promotion in the “real world.” They create marketing campaigns for businesses, events and organizations. Taylor said they help clients connect to unique and niche customers through marketing at places that are out in the neighborhoods where events are taking place.
Studio inHaus creates architectural rendering and visualizations, such as building plans or interior designs for new developments.
“When you see a picture of a building outside of a building site showing you what it’s going to be, that’s kind of the most obvious example of what we do,” Livings said.
Livings co-owns the business with his wife, Laarni Livings, and said Studio inHaus performs much of their work for hotels, local and national, when they are in the process of redesigning hotel rooms and undergoing new construction.
The fourth business opening at the building is FlightFX, an aircraft simulator design firm. Livings is one of the four business partners, and their East Garfield Park location serves as the headquarters for this niche business.
The FlightFX team consists of several 3D artists who create accurate renderings of aircraft for Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, a long-running and popular video game that puts users in an authentic virtual pilot seat.
FlighFX is a Microsoft partner, and is contracted to create air planes for the simulator. The team will go out to physically survey the planes through scanning, measuring, and documenting what a specific airplane feels like to pilot.
“We’ll travel wherever we can source an aircraft. Then we go there and 3D scan it. We record all of the sounds, take loads of pictures, and 360-video. Occasionally we get to fly the plane,” Livings said.
Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. of the 27th Ward, said the addition of the new business brings a new energy to a “dead” corner of East Garfield Park. He said these businesses can give local youth an idea on the kinds of careers that are possible, and provide a “domino effect” for businesses that are moving into the West Side.
“This is a great thing, and it’s unique that we were able to get a business from the West Loop to move to our community. That’s a tell-tale sign that our neighborhood is changing and coming up,” Burnett said.
La Shone Kelly, a longtime resident of East Garfield Park, said she was initially surprised that these businesses were moving into her local neighborhood. Kelly was a founding member and past interim director of the Garfield Park Rite to Wellness Collaborative. She said she is very involved in her community, and is in talks with the owners to create resources, events, and potentially youth internships.
“I’m really excited about them being in our neighborhood, because their concept lines up with what I believe businesses should bring to the community,” Kelly said.
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