![]() The developers of the project, Chicago’s Mercy Housing Lakefront, chose the brand-name architect, unusual design, and “green” element of onsite power generation to shatter some of the longstanding stigmas of SROs, explains Barry Mullen, its regional vice president for real estate development. “Designed with different goals and spirit, this project aspires not only to contribute to the lives of the users, but also to improve the quality of the city.” “I wanted to do this project because affordable housing need not be of lower standard and lesser quality,” Jahn says in a written statement. Together, the turbines and panels provide onsite power for the 96 apartment units inside.įor Jahn, the man behind some of the world’s most recognizable buildings, the fact that Near North Apartments is considered affordable housing didn’t change his desire to make a building that is as striking as it is functional. And on the top of the building? Rows of twisting wind turbines-eight in all-and, hidden from view, flat solar panels. The roof is curved, resembling, some say, the top of a loaf of bread. Its exterior walls don’t run straight up and down, either, but instead angle outward as they rise. ![]() Near North Apartments looks like an oversized, but still sleek, silvery commuter train, the kind that runs through most Chicago neighborhoods. Jahn’s influence is evident at first glance. For one thing, it was designed by Helmut Jahn, a renowned architect who also designed such powerful buildings as the European Union headquarters in Brussels, the United Airlines Terminal at O’Hare International Airport, and several buildings at the Illinois Institute of Technology, a college campus famous for its modern architecture. Near North Apartments, though, is different. Most of the city’s still-existing SROs are small, dingy, dangerous places, either the last step before homelessness for some of its residents or the first step back up from the streets for others. Near North Apartments is a newly built example of what used to be called, usually disparagingly, an “SRO,” short for single-room occupancy. ![]() Instead, they’re here to serve some of Chicago’s poorest. The apartments contain all these features, and several more, but aren’t designed for the city’s wealthiest residents. In the case of Near North Apartments, though, they’d be wrong. Eight cylindrical, Mylar-finned wind turbines on the roof of Near North Apartments take advantage of southwesterly winds in Chicago.
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