Too many developments in Chicago happen to community rather than with community. Even worse, communities of color often have little influence or are outright ignored. This led Claudette Soto to start baso in 2016 and respond to an urgent need for quality, equity-led owner’s representative services. With baso, project owners are empowered to make a positive, generational impact through their projects by actively building and maintaining community wealth. We see projects as opportunities to create inspiring spaces and authentic relationships.

Claudette is a trained architect and structural engineer born and raised in Chicago’s Gage Park. She’s also been a consultant to the City of Chicago’s Department of Buildings both as a project manager and structural reviewer obtaining firsthand knowledge of the City’s permitting and zoning processes. Claudette brings over 19 years of technical experience advocating for inclusive design and construction. She challenges owners and stakeholders to consider who benefits and who’s harmed to build project integrity that guarantees impact.

As a mission-driven business, baso is committed to connecting impactful, multi-million dollar projects with minority businesses and professionals. Through our network of minority and woman-owned design and construction firms, our projects achieve well over 70% MBE/WBE/VOB participation. Projects include the $34m development of The Hatchery Chicago — a 67k SF food incubator, the $2.5m build-out of The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership — an 11k SF workforce development center, and the $40m development of Neal Math and Science Academy — a new 98k SF middle school in North Chicago.

baso is heavily involved in the communities it serves, often engaging stakeholders to inform design, instill ownership and guarantee impact. Critically, baso actively connects local youth and professionals to jumpstart the next generation of design and construction leaders. In 2001, Claudette began VAMOS - a mentoring and STEAM immersion program for youth in her community. Since then, VAMOS has expanded to mentoring first-generation university students and early career professionals.