So, you don’t expect a seniors housing development called the Martha Washington to be especially innovative, exciting or even interesting. Still, I can’t help feeling a little depressed by the new apartment complex on the southeast edge of the “North Center Senior Campus,” a work in progress bounded by Irving, Western, Belle Plaine and Oakley, on land donated by the adjacent Advocate Health Center.
The city has done a pretty nice job on Irving Park Road, a major thoroughfare traversed by many thousands of Chicagoans and visitors each day. As on Ashland, the addition of new lighting, a new surface and new median planters thick with flora have turned a street that felt like a wide alley into a showpiece that has a real psychological impact on the people driving it.
That impact could be a lot greater if the new multi-unit buildings lining Irving were a little more thoughtful. The Martha Washington, which looks like part of a suburban office park, divided from Irving by a fence and a wide parking lot, may be the worst offender. This complex has affordable rentals for seniors 55 and older, and developer Technical Assistance Corporation for Housing completed it about a year and a half ago.
The next phase in the three-building development looks a little more palatable. Belle Plaine Commons at North Center will be an L-shaped condo building with green space and a fountain in an open court. Prices on condos at this development start in the $170s, and buyers must meet income limits. But this building is going up in the northwest corner of the site and won’t have any impact on Irving.
This three-building development (another rental is planned) was a chance to provide much-needed affordable housing for seniors in North Center and Lincoln Square, and it’s a success on that score. But it was also a chance to reclaim a small stretch of Irving from the dense sea of parking that is Advocate Health Center, and the developer, Ald. Gene Schulter (47th) and the city all missed out on that opportunity.
