Reply (James C. Svehla) Two COD Alumni Gain Experience in Urban Design Through the Illinois School of Architecture's Prestigious Chicago Studio Two College of DuPage Architecture program alumni are gaining invaluable experience in urban design as part of the Illinois School of Architecture's Chicago Studio, a semester-long residential immersion in the Chicago architectural scene typically exclusive to graduate students. Akash Mattu of Naperville and Michael Rivera of Wheaton, who are currently undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, are part of a spring project that focuses on the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. Subscribe "Our job is to work with firms, developers and the community to create a cohesive plan to revitalize Woodlawn, which used to have a population of 120,000 but is now at 30,000," Rivera said. "With the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) slated for construction just a couple of blocks away, the concern is that the OPC will not have the beneficial effect that people were hoping for and will instead service only those closest to Hyde Park. Even worse, the OPC could bring about gentrification, pushing out an already hurting community."