The next-door neighbor of a 1910 greystone demolished back in March on North Magnolia Avenue in Lake View is now also slated for the wrecking ball. A new construction permit for 3619 North Magnolia was issued by the City of Chicago on July 10, numbering the days remaining for the 1906-built residence. According to realtor.com, a sale of the property closed in late June for $1.35 million.
3619 (left) and 3617 North Magnolia Avenue. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
A new three-car garage will replace this one. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
3617 North Magnolia Avenue, now gone, and 3619 North Magnolia (left) soon to be gone, February 2026. Photo by Daniel Schell
3617 North Magnolia will be a three-story with basement, two-unit frame building designed by 360 Design Studio for VM SRG Development LLC, with V & M Development of Evanston named as the general contractor. The permit came through after a six-week wait in the data portal, and carries with it a reported cost of $814,200. Details include roof decks, back porches on the first and second floors, and a read stairway. A detached three-car garage at the rear alley accessed from a side alley off Magnolia will also have a rooftop deck. An existing frame garage is included in the demolition permit.
There is a pending demolition permit in the data portal for 3619. Upon its issuance, Tir Conaill Concrete will be the demolition contractor. Afterwards, they’ll be a masonry contractor for the new build. They performed each of those roles next door as well.
A separate developer, Bachula Development, is delivering the two units at 3619 North Magnolia, and that building is topped out and making progress toward exterior completion. It is also going to be a three-story plus basement, two-unit residence, and it too was created by 360 Design Studio.
3617 North Magnolia Avenue, permitted for construction 02/25/2026. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
From the T-intersection of the perpendicular alleys. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Site context of 3619 North Magnolia Avenue, via Google Maps
Nearby transit options, via Google Maps
Residents of 3617 and 3619 North Magnolia will live a block away from CTA bus access via Route 152 on West Addison Street. That bus can be used to connect with the Addison Red Line platform just under half a mile to the east, or the Addison Brown Line about three-quarters of a mile to the west. Additional nearby buses include the #22 Clark and 9 and X9 Ashland routes.
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Unacceptable that this beautiful greystone is to be demolished for an ugly box.
Totally agree. So many empty lots and other places they can put thr ugly boxes
I would be ok with this if they were putting up substantially better buildings, but based on the photos, it’s an oversized, banal box of a building filling the lot. There goes the character of the neighborhood.
Coming soon…..Houston on the lake!
If even a single neighborhood in Houston was like Lakeview I would move instantly.
Their housing is so affordable, if it was combined with the transit/walkability of Chicago it would be an objectively superior city.
I hate it when they tear down a historic greystone.
Can we stop demolishing greystones already?
It seems like a search and destroy mission to get rid of these beautiful substantial buildings. Are they really having trouble renting out these buildings?
Yes, they are. Everyone loves looking at a 150 year old building but no one loves living in a 150 year old building.
What haters call an “oversized building fitting the lot”, the person living there calls “roomy, with high ceilings, and with enough space to have both an office and a toy room”
What a shame. The greystone should have historic designation. Too many plan ugly boxes changes the character of the neighborhood.
I don’t know the area but I love the stone houses but there are apartments next to it in a reddish color that looks a bit old and not matching the area and it’s next to this new building which in all, look out of place…🤔🤷🏻♀️
What are we doing here
Demolishing an old wooden frame house is one thing, but these classic greystones are a vital & unique part of Chicago’s architectural heritage.
Do new constructions not include front doors? Perhaps I’m not sophisticated enough to understand
Who needs front door when you could just enter thru the back😆.
But it looks like there a door offset to the side gangway between the next door neighbor.
It’s remarkable how NIMBY the comments have become…
Tell me about it. There’s nothing so special about this structure that warrants all the hand wringing.
Comments on here are only mostly NIMBY when the structure being demolished is not ugly. I still believe NIMBYism is primarily aesthetic/vibes-based and this continues my belief. I am as YIMBY as they come, but I think it’s very fair to think the new building will be uglier than the old building.
Can they not save the shell and put another floor on top, its been done many times.
3617 is both larger and taller. In order to have the floor area of 3617, 3619 would need at least 2 new floors.
Replacing the old with the new is also an intrinsically good thing so I’m glad the developers got to 3617 before someone foolish tried to keep it preserved forever.
Becoming a really ugly city.
So sad. Building of this nature add so much character to the neighborhood and most likely will be lost forever. If I had the money I would buy one of these in a heartbeat.
I like the new building at 3617, hopefully 3619 is replaced with something similar so it fits the neighborhood better
Yeah, at least it has brick all ’round instead of those concrete blocks.
As an adult, I have lived in a four plus one, a large vintage apartment building, two 2 flats, a large georgian, and two high rises. All of them were good places to live at different times in my life. Owning the second two flat allowed me to build equity before I was thirty. I reject the idea that new is intrinsically better. I hate to see the old greystones go. They are such a part of our immigrant history and part of the reason that Chicago was able to grow into the beautiful, diverse city that it is today.
Our urban vernacular architecture, buildings that intrinsically felt like Chicago, are rapidly being replaced by architecture that could be anyplace in the USA.