Chicago has long been home to some of the nation’s most notorious public housing developments, from the Robert Taylor Homes to Stateway Gardens to Cabrini-Green.
But for years, the city has been working to rid itself of high-density, high-crime, isolated human warehouses in favor of a different vision that incorporates low-income housing within vibrant neighborhoods.
Internationally known architect Helmut Jahn recently gave the vision a boost by designing a sleek, glass-and-stainless steel building to house low-income residents displaced by the demolition of Cabrini-Green, along with the homeless. Assuming the project gains financing and city approval, the five-story, 100-unit structure should begin to take shape near Clybourn Avenue and Division Street in 2005.
Jahn said he enjoyed the challenge of taking a limited budget and producing a work of “equal quality” to any other project he’s undertaken. His design calls for an energy-efficient, ecologically sound, cool-looking building to perform a vital public function.
Tapping Jahn–whose best-known works in Chicago include the brash James R. Thompson Center and the United Airlines Terminal at O’Hare International Airport–was the idea of Lakefront Supportive Housing, a private nonprofit developer.
Lakefront’s contention is that good design matters, even in the realm of low-income housing, which typically puts function over form. The idea is “good design helps create healthy communities,” said Jean Butzen, Lakefront’s president and chief executive officer.
The world has too many disastrous examples of thoughtlessly designed low-income housing projects. This effort, by contrast, should add some excitement and economic value to its neighborhood, while bolstering the dignity of its inhabitants.
