Work has officially been completed at the historic Victor F. Lawson House at 30 W Chicago Avenue in the Near North Side. Located on the northeast corner with N Dearborn Street across the street from the massive One Chicago development, the renovation took the 10th place in our 2023 year-end countdown. The work was led by developer Holsten Real Estate with local design firm Farr Associates.
Lawson House. Photo by Jack Crawford
Built in 1931 and rising 24 stories in height, the Perking, Chatten & Hammond-designed tower was previously a YMCA and most recently contained 538 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units. Now after a multi-year renovation and restoration, the building has had its Art Deco facade restored with new lighting and windows, having partially opened in January.
View within unit of completed Lawson House via Block Club
Now all of the new 400 micro apartments are officially open. The studio units contain a private bathroom and kitchenette, which the previous SRO’s did not have. The fully affordable residences will remain so for the next 50 years per the development agreement. Other additions include new retail space on the ground floor and a rooftop terrace on the 19th floor setback.
Lawson House. Photo by Jack Crawford
Additionally residents will now have in-unit air conditioning, in-building laundry, a new fitness room, and community rooms for services. Many previous residents have been allowed to move back now that the $128 million project is completed. Executed by Walsh Construction, the project was funded via Low Income Housing Tax Credits, private loans, and other public loans.
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It is a shame the number of units available has been reduced so steeply, but the tradeoff will be a much more sustainable lifestyle.
The city should permit an additional 1,000+ new units to compensate for such a loss. Start by targeting that awful chunk of decay that used to be the Rainforest Cafe. And what is with that massive BP gas station still sitting so pretty? It seems like there is ample space to do literally anything else. Or… maybe consolidate all the parking around the Lawson House. Today is a great day to upend a parking lot.
The biggest waste of land in the city is that McDonalds in River North. That takes up an entire city block.
I live right down the street from this. It is SUCH a waste everytime I pass it, even if I had to compromise I’d *at least* say the wasteful parking lot with it should’ve been zoned for something more dense.
Totally. We should be incentivizing land owners like McDonald’s to want to build as densely as possible. And tax the crap out of drive thrus. They’re one of the worst land use land owners in the city always retrofitting suburban style development onto every plot of land they sit on.
I’ll agree with Jeremy. A massive skyscraper, even sears tower sized could fit in that block between Ohio Ontario Dearborn and Clark and all it would cost Chicago would be… A McDonald’s. Yes I said that correctly. A McDonald’s.
I bet sales team from One Chicago is thrilled about it.. McDonald’s, Subway station and now this.. even tho none of this would be a problem if law and order would be restored in Chicago, but until then- awful sales at One Chicago
Also, what kind of prison cells are those? Why Chicago with all this land needs such micro apartments? Truly shows you extend of care for these people from those in charge of Chicago public housing money.
Good to see they splurged and got smart locks for the door (see woman pairing phone in pic). /s
This will amount to a huge increase in affordable units (presumably it has been a while since all of the SRO units were fully occupied). I’m pleased for the area. Affordable housing is also good for businesses.
So-called “affordable housing” is a corruption scheme. to buy votes at the expense of tax payers of Chicago. Should be abolished for good.
If you want affordable housing – build more, build cheaper, de-regulate, issue permits promptly.
affordable housing in chicago is a scam.- Supply and demand – get with the program- where is all this money going that developers pay into for housing – its all a scam. Stop the crime then people will come back into the city MR.MAYOR.
IT’s absurd they spend $128m of city money to reduce the number of low cost units in a building. The city is responsible for destroying virtually all of this kind of cheap, older housing – used to be they’d use eminent domain to buy ’em up, knock ’em down and give the land to Mayor Daley’s friends. Now they throw money at them, and remodel them out of existence.
Greeting’s,
Does The Lawson House have closet space in any of your units?