The mixed-income development Park Boulevard will break ground at West 35th Street near South Federal Street, on Thursday, the latest project in the city’s efforts to integrate public housing tenants living in deplorable conditions into the mainstream community.
The project is a joint venture of the Chicago Housing Authority and private groups including Mesa Development. It replaces the demolished highrises of the CHA’s Stateway Gardens complex with 1,300 units, including townhomes and mid-rise apartments (see rendering).
As Alex Kotlowitz reminds us in There Are No Children Here, his seminal book about a young family struggling to stay afloat in a crime-riddled CHA property, Soviet housing officials visited Chicago at the height of communism and were appalled at the poor quality of public housing construction. So far, the mixed-income developments that have replaced other CHA highrises, like Jazz on the Boulevard, look great and as CHA officials point out, it is impossible to tell who is living where.
It is too soon to say how this first-of-its-kind experiment will work out, but the world is watching with interest. Last month Korean housing officials were the latest in a string of international visitors to tour the rehabilitated properties.