The Chicago City Council has approved Old Town Canvas at 1600 N LaSalle Drive in Old Town. Years in the making, this project has become a prominent example of the challenges surrounding the city’s approval process and aldermanic prerogative. Local developer Fern Hill is leading the effort, bringing the first high-rise to the neighborhood in decades.
Site context map of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
Comparative massing of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
Designed by GREC Architects, the 36-story tower will rise to 379 feet, similar in height to nearby buildings. Despite this, some neighbors have opposed the project, citing concerns about density and crime that lack substantiated evidence. The tower will replace a one-story Walgreens and its parking lot. The pharmacy will return as a tenant in the new structure, occupying part of the ground-floor retail space.
PREVIOUS rendering of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
Rendering of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
In addition to Walgreens, the ground floor will feature the residential lobby and a large vehicle drop-off area along LaSalle Drive. This will accommodate deliveries, rideshare pickups, and serve as the entrance to a 258-space parking garage within the podium. Parking will be shared between residents and the congregation of Moody Church, located across the street.
Floor plans of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
Above the podium, residents will enjoy a large amenity deck featuring a pool. The building will house 349 apartments, consisting of 106 studios, 162 one-bedrooms, 54 two-bedrooms, and 27 three-bedroom units. Of these, 70 units will be designated as affordable housing. Residents will also have access to additional amenity spaces and a rooftop deck.
Rendering of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
Elevations of Old Town Canvas by GREC Architects
The podium will be clad in brick, echoing the style of the original Walgreens building, and will incorporate large arches and some of the store’s original lighting fixtures. The tower itself will be wrapped in a curtain wall system with a multi-colored metal panel grid, a design element that inspired the project’s “canvas” name. Fern Hill has also pledged $1 million toward improvements to the surrounding roadways.
With City Council approval now secured, Fern Hill can move forward with financing and building permits. A construction timeline has not yet been announced.
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Finally. There is still an astounding number of parking spaces included considering the building’s location. Whatever I bet the alder nor the engaged and enraged neighbors wouldn’t have allowed the devel to get to this point without them all.
From what I heard directly from the developer and the Moody Bible Church in one of the final meetings is that some of the parking that the Church has deals and parking recommendations with around the entire radius from the Church are going to be consolidated into this project.
So instead of the Church saying “go park on x,y,z streets or use a specific parking lot area. They are going to suggest most of all the parking can be done in this new parking lot/deck. I don’t know if for sure they said it will accommodate all potential needed, but they did say it will alleviate and make people who attend Church a much less hassle than roaming around to the various other areas and taking up street parking they work with.
Glad this got approved.
For every time somebody uses the word “Alder”, I hereby pledge to use the word “Alderman” twice 🙂
That’s a strange pledge. I assume you are going to walk around repeatedly chanting alderman twice like a weirdo who’s trying to avoid a third utterance for fear that one is summoned.
The correct word is Alderthey/them
The next time you’re fed up and infuriated by affordable housing being anything but, thank your neighbors that make just the most simple of housing projects, like this, impossible.
The up-zoning of Edgewater, the “Alderman prerogative”, the concerned citizen fearful of parking, that chick in West Loop mad about sharing her CITY, and that whacked out lady in Little Village with the church conversion. Every one of these ‘opinions’ backtracks the ability to deliver quality homes.
The architecture isn’t always going to be phenomenal. The 70’s have already proven that. But housing was sure as heck cheaper back then. Why? Because they weren’t terrified to build just the most simple of structures.
When the Supreme Court approved zoning way back in the 1920s, they stressed that the system had to be objective, and not arbitrary. Our system in Chicago is anything but, and could be open to constitutional challenge. I’d love to see someone take that on.
I hear all this talk about cutting red tape, but I have yet to see any significant progress. I know changing building codes is anything but easy and very lackluster, but at least the low-hanging fruit of removing single-stair parking minimums, single-family enclaves, etc. IF the mayor is chipping away at the codes, advertise it. I want more transparency and welcome seemingly useless information. It keeps us informed. The other aisle of politics will shout every step of their schemes and scream the results. Their methods are effective because they are not passive.
Why does red-state Texas have more progressive housing legislation than blue stronghold Chicago? I hate it.
It’s at least because Chicago has a lot more dense history as a productive urban city for longer than Texas cities. Texas is having its boom much later and the complexities of these booms will cause both helpful and unhelpful zoning laws and restrictions to be put in place. Chicago is ahead, we get to enjoy our incredible place and tweak and replace what doesn’t work. It’s not easy work, but let’s do it.
Yup. Chicago isn’t booming like Texas, unless it’s West Loop which does have a lot planned. I love Chicago but you gotta recognize it’s hard to complete projects in a city that has a lot of financial issues and has been losing population in most neighborhoods.
Exactly. More housing will bring down the prices. Similarly, building more “simple structures” will bring more interesting developments over time.
You will also have more people living in the city, paying taxes, attracting business and more.
Aldermen have way too much power and time and time again it seems that their opinions are noting more than arbitrary.
It is worth mentioning that much of the parking is for Moody Church (who is giving up their surface parking lot as part of this deal), not for the residential tower
not shocking it’s 1030 AM and there are so many comments about this project…. why do people care so much LOL
Why would a YIMBY forum care about dense building? Ask yourself that question again slowly.
There is a ~5% chance this project will receive financing. Nice for Fern Hill to have something approved I suppose, but it is not a feasible project with institutional equity on the sidelines, high construction costs, and the affordability component. Fern Hill has no track record also which is extremely unhelpful when the experienced groups can’t even get equity. Policy NEEDs to change in Chicago. This should have been approved years ago and cost Fern hill 80% less. It’s a massive problem.
Unfortunately, the Alderman did a tremendous disservice to Old Town and the Lake front by creating a traffic nightmare at three of the city’s busiest intersections.
I’m curious why you’re on a NIMBY forum.
ask your CTA and CDOT about infrastructure improvements on the relevant forums
It’s a project that should have been approved a while ago. It makes sense for the neighborhood that’s already dense. Don’t want density? Don’t live near the lake or near downtown. Old Town is both.
Obviously you can live wherever you want but you sound like you belong in the burbs
Complaining about density and “crime” with a proposed building that is in one of the densest and tallest parts of the country is just laughable. Do NIMBYs really think a tower with 20% affordable units is going to raise crime (as if affordable housing raised crime at all, which it doesn’t)?
Buildings like this should not take years to approve and it should not be an uphill battle with “neighbors” pulling out every nonsensical complaint under the sun. If we want Chicago or any city in North America to grow the process needs to be infinitely more streamlined and simple. Glad its finally approved though.
Elevation along Lasalle reminds me of some soft post-modern pandering. Wish they could come up with a cleaner expression from this decade and not a poor reflection of the Moody bible building.
Would love to see them do something with the two ugly gas stations that surround the Mood Church. I see those are a part of the deal.
I’m pretty sure those gas stations are supposed to be biting the dust, but I don’t think there’s an approved plan for replacing them that’s moving forward at the moment, so they probably will be around for awhile.
What an outrage!
I demand 37 more community meetings!
and then another 37…
and then another 37…
COMMUNITY MEETINGS FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great news. Don’t want density? Don’t live near the lake or near downtown. Old Town is both.