FitzGerald Associates Architects recently received a 2008 Charter Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism for its work on the Oakwood Shores development in Bronzeville.

The CNU, a San Francisco-based nonprofit, hands out 15 Charter Awards annually to firms that "set the gold standard for urban design and development and serve as powerful examples for future development," according to the group's Web site.

Granite Partners for Oakwood Boulevard LLC is building more than 3,000 homes on land owned by the Chicago Housing Authority, including the former sites of the Madden Park, Ida B. Wells and Darrow Homes. The project includes both rental and for-sale units in six- and nine-flat buildings, townhouses and single-family homes.

Mid-rise condos at Oakwood Shores start in the $170s, townhouses start in the $370s, and single-family homes start in the $690s.

An article in Crain's from earlier this week described a new plan by the Chicago Loop Alliance to rework a stretch of Michigan Avenue between Wacker Drive and Randolph Street to "improve the pedestrian experience along this important gateway."

The article referenced the Chicago Loop Alliance's findings (due out today), which will likely call for a special tax for property owners along the strip to fund the $165 million improvement.

In conjunction with the article, Crain's produced this slideshow (narrated by Eddie Baeb) showing the current state of the avenue and how the Alliance's proposal might improve it. The image above is a screenshot from the slideshow.

Finally, a little sunshine! We snapped this shot of Catalpa Gardens, 1122 W Catalpa Ave, from the Bryn Mawr Red Line station this morning.

As you can see, construction is all but complete. We checked in with the @properties sales team earlier this month; prices for the 46 available one-, two- and three-bedroom units started around $200,000 and topped out near $400,000. Buyers also benefit from a one-year warranty on all construction-related issues.

Curious how this project looks on the inside? We've got photos from a tour of the model last June.

The Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards ceremony that was held last Thursday to honor a year's worth of forward-thinking urban development. Crain's has a brief writeup on the winners; read on to learn more about the winning projects, organizations and people.

Chicago Community Trust Outstanding Community Strategy of the Year: Lawndale Christian Development Corporation

Richard Driehaus Award for Outstanding Non-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project: The Center on Halsted

Outstanding For-Profit Neighborhood Real Estate Project: Rancho Verde (part of the larger Chicago GreenWorks eco-industrial park)

Special Recognition Award: St. Leo’s Campus for Veterans

Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Awards for Architectural Excellence in Community Design

First place: Solid Ground housing facility
Second place: Pacific Garden Mission
Third place: Margot and Harold Schiff Residences (formerly known as the Near North Apartments)

Friend of the Neighborhoods Award: Richard H. Driehaus

Norman Bobins Leadership Award: Carlos Nelson, executive director of the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation

Site work has been ongoing since November at Fountain View, 2326 W Giddings Ave, Terra Firma's 18-unit condo development in the heart of Lincoln Square. The mixed-use project is also registered with the U.S. Green Building Council, the national nonprofit that operates the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system.

Terra Firma constantly monitors the construction process and documents the requisite green building techniques for the LEED certification process, says Brad Leibov, a principal with the firm. Yo spoke with Leibov today to get the latest on the development, which bills itself as the first green mixed-use building in Chicago. When we last checked in, the developer had just finished tearing down the previous existing building on the site.

"We require our contractor to report to us on a regular basis," says Leibov. "One of [the] goals is to recycle 50 percent of the previous building's materials."

Leibov reported today that Terra Firma's contractor has succeeded in recycling 97 percent of the previous building's debris - well beyond the nominal number required by the city. In addition, the developer was able to use the underground foundation from the old building to partially support Fountain View's new underground parking garage.

Fountain View's two- and three-bedroom units range in size from 1,292 to 1,540 square feet. Prices begin in the $420s and top out near the $550s; heated underground parking begins at $30,000. Prudential Preferred Properties is marketing the units, and Terra Firma expects deliveries to begin in August.

In this video (a companion to last week's entry on car sharing), we discuss how the innovative program fits into Lakeshore East, a master-planned high-rise development at 400 E South Water St.

Vanessa Casciano, community relations director with Magellan Development Group, joins Rich Kosmacher, business development manager with I-GO Car Sharing, to discuss the genesis of the partnership.

Magellan incorporated I-GO, the Chicago-based nonprofit car sharing service that operates about 165 fuel-efficient cars around the city, into its Magellan Rewards program. This initiative - extended to both homeowners and apartment renters at Lakeshore East - provides incentives and discounts to dozens of stores and services around the city.

As part of an upcoming New Homes Magazine article, we spoke with Rich Kosmacher, business development manager with I-GO Car Sharing.

I-GO is a distinctly Chicago endeavor that launched in 2002 as a nonprofit effort through the Center of Neighborhood Technology. Since then, the program's nifty cars - mostly fuel-efficient Hondas and Toyotas - have become ubiquitous at grocery stores and public parking garages around the city. Drivers reserve cars at locations around the city and then pay an hourly rate to use the vehicles; gas and insurance is provided through the program.

As a nonprofit, I-GO can claim a deep market penetration, often bringing cars into areas ahead of the pending gentrification wave. And for urban homebuyers, the presence of an I-GO car is seen as a vote of confidence in the future of the neighborhood itself.

A handful of hot-button real estate issues topped the Chicago Journal's year-in-review feature this month.

The weekly newspaper serves Wicker Park, Bucktown, West Town, Ukrainian Village and Logan Square, and editor Timothy Inklebarger takes readers on a "short, strange trip" through the region's most recent growing pains.

One of the most regrettable news items of the year was the departure of Filter coffee shop at 1585 N. Milwaukee. The hipster coffee shop was located at the heart of the trendy Bucktown and Wicker Park neighborhoods. The announcement that the popular coffee shop and neighboring hot dog restaurant, Swank Frank, would be replaced with a Bank of America drew outrage on Internet chat rooms. Bank of America has since announced plans to open another branch at the nearby corner of Milwaukee and Ashland.

For once, it's nice to be the Second City. New York has surpassed Chicago as the teardown capital of the nation, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Big Apple's namesake daily newspaper has a superb look at the economics (and controversy) behind demolition.

It is the size of the profit margins required by speculators that has caused some to opt out, said Daniel McMillen, a professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has conducted a financial analysis of teardowns in the Chicago area. Builders like to sell for two or three times the original price, he said, so “the slowdown in the housing market will slow teardowns being done on speculation.”

But regardless of how quickly a teardown project goes or how much money the rebuild sells for, the neighbors always take notice. Some will probably be up in arms about a spate of demolitions destroying the character of their community; others will be delighted at the prospects that the new construction will increase their own property values.

The city may have backed off its plan in Lincoln Square's eminent domain showdown, but there are still lingering questions about the nature of the proposal and the community's reaction. Ben Joravsky breaks down the outcome of this David-and-Goliath duel in the Chicago Reader's Clout City blog. It's worth a read if you're still unsure of what exactly went down over the last few weeks.

[Ald. Gene] Schulter contended that the commercial strip, with its booming residential base, was starting to attract the interest of big-box chains. By beating the big boxes to the punch, he said, his plan would actually protect small businesses and help keep the community free of too much traffic and congestion. Sure, in this case protecting small businesses meant threatening them with government seizure of their property. But the declaration of eminent domain alone would help keep the Best Buys at bay: there's no market for land the city can snatch at will.