Last Friday Cribchatter featured a unit at 2435 N Sheffield Ave, the Common Sense Lofts.
The 12-unit building takes its name from the Common Sense Novelty Company. According to a 1985 Tribune article, it was “the city`s first conversion of an industrial loft building to residential condos.” The building’s developer, Owen Deutsch, had been a successful fashion photographer, and is now an avid birder.
Loft living was so novel in Chicago at the time of the building’s conversion that it appeared to be anything but commonsensical. The building’s marketing approach, according to a story that was widely circulated at the time but may very well be apocryphal, departed wildly from common sense. Prospective buyers were purportedly not allowed to see units until they had attended an off-site lecture / slide show on the ethos of loft living, following which they were bused to the building.
Was Common Sense, in fact, the city’s first residential loft condo? Perhaps, perhaps not.
The condo declaration for Common Sense Lofts was recorded in July of 1979. The conversion of the Factory Lofts, 1855 N Halsted St, was well underway prior to that time, and I don’t have access to the date of recording for its condo dec. The condo declaration for Anchor Lofts, 215 W Illinois, was recorded in August of 1979, but I drafted it prior to leaving the practice of law in May of 1979, by which time construction was well along.