Downtown Chicago can have its fancy schmancy glass high-rises overlooking Millennium Park and Daley can talk a big game about his newfound passion for modern architecture, but when it comes to the neighborhoods it appears that Chicagoans’ architectural tastes (with some notable exceptions) veer more to the traditional.
Yo had heard that the developer of HarborView, two 12-story towers that will face each other on either side of the 400 block of Melrose Street, was planning to build a pair of glassy modern towers that leaned into each other, forming a sort of bulkhead effect.
But it appears that that idea was altered slightly after community groups and the Department of Planning and Development took a look. HarborView is one building in from the lake, and therefore falls under the Lakefront Protection Ordinance. From what we can tell, the community wanted to see something more classical, and the developer has decided to encase the facade in a synthetic limestone and modular brick. (Pictured is the slightly wider south tower).
That said, it looks like architectural firm K2 Studio has done a classy job of creating little bay windows that jut out from the living spaces and the building likely will offer some great lake views in a pretty fabulous location. Homes are priced from the $640s to $1.2 million.