Urban Land - January 2006 - Developments

In Memoriam—Longtime ULI Leader Charlie Shaw

Former ULI chairman and longtime trustee and ULI Foundation governor Charles “Charlie” H. Shaw, Sr., chairman of the Shaw Company in Oakbrook, Illinois, died of an aortic aneurysm January 4 during a skiing trip in Colorado. He was 72.

A ULI member since January 1974, Shaw served as Institute chairman from July 1993 to July 1995, and was instrumental in moving forward several key areas of ULI’s program of work, including advancing its global expansion efforts and enhancing its focus on revitalizing urban neighborhoods. His career in real estate spanned more than 40 years. He felt a strong obligation not to just develop, but to develop responsibly.

Shaw’s projects ranged from high-end resort development to affordable housing. Two of his favorites (both of which were ULI Awards for Excellence winners) reflect this diversity: Museum Tower, a 52-story building of luxury condominiums built in the air rights over New York City’s Museum of Modern Art; and Homan Square in Chicago, a mixed-income development including a community facility with a health and family learning center, a public meeting and banquet space, a recreation area with an indoor pool and gym, and a daycare center. Shaw’s experience developing Homan Square represented a turning point in his career, fueling his interest in inner-city neighborhood revitalization. Located on the site of the long-shut Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog facility in the troubled North Lawndale neighborhood, the project represented a new model for comprehensive, multifunctional communities.

In 2001, he endowed the ULI/Charles H. Shaw Forum on Community Issues, an annual forum created to raise the visibility of issues pertaining to the viability of urban neighborhoods. The first forum, held in the fall of that year, focused on the role played by schools, recreational centers, job training centers, and other public facilities in providing a foundation for community building. Subsequent Shaw forums covered community development corporations working with nonprofit developers, capitalizing on the new markets tax credit, involving the community in neighborhood planning, and making parks accessible to the community.

The Shaw forums are an important part of ULI’s ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life in communities, according to ULI President Richard M. Rosan. “Charlie’s generosity has given ULI an additional opportunity to bring together knowledgeable land use experts seeking solutions to pressing urban issues. He saw these forums as a way to give back to his Institute, his community, and his industry.”