Items Tagged ‘Illinois’
Buyer Sought For Roosevelt Road Firehouse
Synopsis:
The old Engine Company 18 Firehouse, dating back to 1873, has sat vacant and unused since 2008. Nearly two years later, the City of Chicago will release a request for proposal on March 15th. The City would prefer a commercial or mixed-use redevelopment, and has stated that proposed projects must adaptively reuse the building and encourages maintaining the facade which has been in place since 1916. Although the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago had originally hoped to add the building to its cultural offerings, the City appears to be going down a different route.
Huntley’s Downtown Future Divides Community
Synopsis:
The community of Huntley in Illinois is drafting plans for its future. While there are three different perspectives on how to move forward, all but one incorporate adaptive reuse within their programs. The village hired Houseal Lavigne & Associates as a consult to help them determine the plan. Houseal met with local business owners and residents, inventoried existing conditions, and performed a market analysis of the downtown area. The three perspectives that came out of the work are:
- Preservationist Approach – preserve the existing buildings, update facade, convert residential buildings for future commercial use
- Aggressive Approach – demolish some buildings, increase density downtown
- Gateway Approach – hybrid of the first two, expand the downtown square, establish gateway entries to the downtown, adaptive reuse of existing structures
With any of the plans, the community hopes to build upon the walkability of its traditional downtown, to make it more of a destination.
2100 Greenwood Lofts
Synopsis:
History
The complex initially was a rolled steel cutting factory located in Evanston, north of Chicago. It was built of steel and brick.
(Re)Developer
Evanston Condos purchased the complex with the intention to reuse the structure for live/work space. Not only did they intend to reuse the building, but the bricks from any of the walls that had to be removed were reused elsewhere in the complex for new construction.
Outcome
2100 Greenwood Lofts has developed into an architecturally unique loft community of 27 units with 12 to 20 foot ceilings and 1,000 to 2,700 square foot live/work space. There is an open private courtyard that meanders through the complex. By developing the units as live/work spaces, the units offer residents the ability to work from home and reduce their carbon footprint as well as save money[1].
