La Casa Student Housing in Pilsen. (UrbanWorks)

Community development in design was the topic at hand Wednesday at the 19th Richard H. Driehaus Foundation’s Community Neighborhood Development Awards. The award was established in 1995 by Local Initiatives Support Corporation Chicago (LISC).

UrbanWorks received first place for La Casa Student Housing. A dormitory for 100 students in Pilsen, La Casa responds to the neighborhood’s growing vibrancy, as well as its working-class roots — created at the behest of The Resurrection Project, La Casa is affordable housing for neighborhood students attending college, many of them the first in their families to do so.

Park Douglas (Courtesy Koo and Associates)

Second place went to Pappageorge Haymes Partners and Koo and Associates for Park Douglas, a 300-apartment mixed-income development on a former CHA site.

“Subtle recognition of the surrounding environment and the use of salvaged materials really add to the authenticity of the buildings,” Jackie Koo said in a statement.

JGMA’s UNO Soccer Academy in Gage Park. (Courtesy JGMA)

JGMA received third place for the UNO Soccer Academy, a new elementary school in Gage Park. Built on the site of a long-shuttered manufacturing plant, the bold design was intended as a beacon for the Southwest Side neighborhood.

Growing Home, an integral part of Englewood’s burgeoning urban agriculture movement, took the Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Development Strategy of the Year Award.