The City of Chicago has issued a pair of demolition permits that will lead to renovations for the MAAFA Redemption Project in West Garfield Park. The two properties to be razed bookend a church building at 4241 West Washington Boulevard, which will be transformed into the MAAFA Center for Arts & Activism, or The MAC Center.
Two permits were issued by the City of Chicago on January 2 to address damage caused by a fire at the Tapestry Fellowship Church in Irving Park. Located at 3824 West Irving Park Road, across from Independence Park, the fire occurred on the morning of December 22, 2023. It started in the cafe and damaged most of the building’s lower level and caused heavy smoke damage to the sanctuary above, according to a post on the church’s Facebook page the day after the fire.
Wayman African Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 509 West Elm Street in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood on the Near North Side, is undergoing the partial demolition of one- and two-story additions to the original church structure. The single-story portion has already been reduced to rubble, and the crew from demo contractor DemoX is working on the two-story addition that extends the west end of the building.
An office-to-residential conversion is in progress on a historic building on the Near West Side. The former West End Woman’s Club at 37 South Ashland Avenue, built in 1904 and the home of the United Electrical Workers union from 1948 until last year, is being renovated into apartments by ZSD Corp. They received a permit from the City of Chicago on May 15 to renovate the building and add an addition above the existing structure.
Renovation work on the Thompson Center in The Loop continues, as more of the curved façade facing Randolph and Clark Streets has been stripped of its original cladding. The building’s transformation into Google offices has it looking a little bare and exposed at present; new triple-paned glass being used to replace the façade will aid in a more efficiently heated and cooled facility.
