Chicago’s best West Loop / Near West apartments – One-bedroom floor plan

We define Chicago’s “near west” neighborhoods to include the West Loop, Fulton River District and River West. You’ll find all of your major apartment options in these neighborhoods on our at-a-glance list of downtown apartments.

Our goal is to help you find the apartment that best fits your needs. Renters simply have so many differing priorities – and budget constraints – that singling out an overall best building would be a pointless exercise, so we’re spotlighting the best choices on 18 different criteria.

Our first posts in this series focused on location. We spotlighted the buildings with the best views, most convenient grocery shopping, and the best access to public transit, parks, the expressway grid, the Loop, dining and nightlife and retail shopping.

We turned our attention to aspects of the buildings, starting with affordability, building amenities, boutique ambiance and pet-friendliness.

Our final group of selections focuses on the apartments, starting with finishes and features, private outdoor space and studio / convertible floor plan.

One-bedroom apartments are the most numerous type in virtually every major apartment building, so you can expect the category to be highly competitive. One of the ways in which some of the newer buildings have remained price-competitive with older ones is by shrinking the square footage of one-bedroom floor plans, often resulting in smaller bedrooms and limited closet space.


Our award for the best layouts in the one-bedroom category goes to Presidential Towers. Its one-bedroom plans typically have larger-than-average bedrooms, much better-than-average closet space, and spaces that lend themselves to flexible furniture groupings.

Chime in with a comment if you disagree with our selection.

You’ll find links to our objective, visually-rich apartment reviews of near west buildings, and links to near real-time availability checks for most of the buildings, at our downtown apartments at-a-glance list, and some tips and advice at our Guide to renting in Chicago’s near west neighborhoods.

We’ve also spotlighted the best apartments in River North, Streeterville and the South Loop.

Next topic: Two-bedroom floor plan.

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