In 2003, architecture critic and local blogger Lynn Becker wrote a cover story in the Chicago Reader calling on developers to “stop the blandness.”
Incredibly, they listened. At least many of them did.
As Becker was writing, there already were hints of serious changes afoot in local residential design. A number of builders had been steadily creating track records for progressive projects, and dissatisfaction with a series of terrible towers in neighborhoods like River North was taking its toll.
The vast bulk of major developments, however, were not especially well-designed, this at a time when a building boom was remaking the city’s skyline. But in just four short years, Chicago has seen a sea change in residential design. New Homes Magazine highlights some of the cutting-edge high-rise designs reshaping downtown Chicago and how a slower market might affect the trend in its October issue.