Five finalists have been revealed for the city’s Missing Middle Infill Housing initiative across Lawndale. Split into six clusters/zones of vacant city-owned lots, the initiative looks to subsidize the construction of 99 for-sale homes for the middle class in an area that has long seen rampant disinvestment and 15 percent population loss in the last decade.
Additional funding has been awarded for After School Matters’ new location at 1065 N Orleans Avenue in the Near North Side. The project will redevelop an existing school building that was most recently the home of Architectural Artifacts before it relocated to Texas. The project is being designed by local firm Eckenhoff Saunders.
Details have been revealed for the renovation and expansion of the South Side Community Art Center at 3831 S Michigan Avenue in Bronzeville. Located just north of the intersection with E Pershing Road, the center currently operates out of a historic mansion with a vacant side yard. Design efforts are being led by Future Firm, with wrkSHäp serving as the preservation architect.
Chicago is known for its diverse neighborhoods, but it is also a city of 50 wards, each led by an alderperson with their own agenda. As 2025 begins, the city is grappling with budget issues, population growth, and rising crime perception, while aldermanic prerogative—where each alderman has veto power over development in their ward—adds another layer of hurdles to solving these challenges. We’ll examine this issue today through the lens of two major residential projects currently stuck in bureaucratic red tape, including Old Town Canvas, which was blocked by Alderman Brian Hopkins just yesterday.
An opening timeline has been announced for the fully renovated Clarendon Community Center at 4501 N Clarendon Avenue in Uptown. Sitting near the intersection with W Montrose Avenue, we last covered this project in 2022 as it scored all of its $13 million in funding. Now after nearly two years in the making, the center will reopen to the public this spring.
