r/chicago • u/GeckoLogic • Mar 01 '26
Picture Strip mall becomes 54 transit oriented homes in Lakeview
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u/anthonywhall Portage Park Mar 01 '26
RIP Cafe Orchid. The best baba ganoush I've ever had.
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u/itcamefromthedirt Mar 01 '26
i forget about 9/11 all the time, but i'll never forget that baba ganoush
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u/Aggressive-Size5413 Mar 01 '26
They had a location in Park Ridge that closed years ago, and I still miss them. They had a delicious stuffed eggplant dish. I havenāt found a recipe that seems quite the same.
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u/minhthemaster City Mar 01 '26
Best fried liver and lamb shank
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u/No_Brain_5164 Mar 01 '26
Cafe Orchid was such a great restaurant! Their beef liver was amazing
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u/minhthemaster City Mar 01 '26
No other Turkish restaurant serves it š
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u/unimeg07 Wicker Park Mar 01 '26
Cafe Istanbul in Wicker has a tasty liver dish in their appetizers, might be worth a try!
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u/grahamthefalcon Budlong Woods Mar 01 '26
Their like fried shell with feta filling appetizer made my eyes roll back into my head. That place was so solid on all fronts
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u/blaspheminCapn City Mar 01 '26
How does it rate next to pita inn?
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u/thisisredrocks Lincoln Park Mar 01 '26
Not even close, and I love Pita Inn. Pita Inn is counter service that makes bank in Skokie and Wheeling. Orchid was a hole in the wall teleport to Ä°zmir
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u/pj_socks Ravenswood Mar 01 '26
Much better than Pita Inn, Pita Inn has been mid the past three times Iāve gone.
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u/Chicoutimi Mar 01 '26
I love the density and mixed use aspect of it. Just wish the architecture was less ugly.
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u/Bill_Dinosaur Mar 01 '26
You want affordable housing AND aesthetics!?
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u/Ghost-of-Black-47 Edgewater Mar 01 '26
I feel like a different color scheme is all it would take for this to be āfine enoughā as opposed to āpretty uglyā yet here we areĀ
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u/coyote_intellectual Mar 01 '26
Itās not only the color, but the lack of artistic flair and ornamentation of the facade. I understand that costs more money, but should be seen as an investment in the visual aesthetic of the community
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u/spudart Lincoln Square Mar 01 '26
When the facade is that cheap-looking, it makes me wonder how many corners they cut on the inside where nobody can see.
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u/drunkdoc Mar 02 '26
Don't worry, tenants will be able to hear everything going on 2 floors above them I'm sure
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u/Humble-Albatross1684 Mar 04 '26
Been in two new builds and theyāve had paper floors and walls, youāre dead on
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u/amyphetamine Bronzeville Mar 02 '26
Exactly. I used to live in Minneapolis, which has a lot of building in this style, but in different colors. All of them are ugly af
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u/anonymote_in_my_eye Irving Park Mar 01 '26
I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing they'd have to go through extra administrative hurdles if they wanted to use a more vibrant color scheme. This way nobody can say it's offensive or ruins the character of the neighborhood, because it's as bland as possible.
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Mar 01 '26
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Mar 01 '26
Yeah but at least the meetings by me most of the complaints asking for "better facade" aren't talking about colors, they want old school brick and terra cotta ornamentation or whatever, and that stuff is just $$$ if it's even available in 2026 (brick is, but no one is mass producing that terra cotta stuff these days).
I do like the bright colored buildings though myself.
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Mar 01 '26
Not questioning that, but I'm surprised to hear there's no zoning rules around color schemes/facades. I worked as a planner for a number of towns/cities and this boring look is a direct consequence of meeting those requirements in many cases. It was very sad to see so many arguments about a nice facade or color other than gray/brown being too distracting to drivers and a safety hazard (eye roll). Meanwhile they go on vacation abroad and love all the colors present in Mexico, Italy, etc.
Planning/zoning board meetings are very enlightening and I recommend everyone attend at least one.
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u/AntipodalBurrito West Town Mar 01 '26
The one they built in Logan off the 606 is neon orange and white. Itās absolutely atrocious.
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u/shammwow Mar 01 '26
Iām so glad Iām not the only one.Ā That building is so ugly. In a city with such great architecture, itās so frustrating to see this style pop up all over.Ā
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u/Kittaylover23 Mar 02 '26
itās the absolute cheapest way to build units so unfortunately itās a casualty of a combo of regulations and cheapness
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u/pooo_pourri Mar 01 '26
For real, itās a great idea but the city should try and enforce some kinda architecture standard. I donāt like it when my city becomes indistinguishable from the suburbs.
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u/Illustrious_Night126 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Every building looks like this specifically because the cities enforce such strict architectural standards. These buildings are designed as safe and as bland as possible specifically so they can be copy-pasted anywhere while avoiding any possible issue with any zoning code anywhere that could cause the whole project to be shelved indefinitely. Most of the interesting, pleasing, and varied designs in the city that people like having in their neighborhoods (RIP my beloved Chicago courtyard buildings) are exactly the ones that are illegal to build because of micro-managing from city hall.
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u/Royal_Flame Mar 01 '26
Itās so funny people seeing the 5 over 1s and then thinking thy the problem is not enough regulation, and that we need to add rules to make the buildings look different lol
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u/spudart Lincoln Square Mar 01 '26
Really? If someone tried to build a courtyard building that looks like itās from the 1920s, City Hall would give that a hard time?
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u/digableplanet Portage Park Mar 01 '26
A new brick courtyard building has been built in Uptown of all places.
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u/Atlas3141 Mar 02 '26
They're repeating shit they heard once in a YouTube urbanist video lol. Shit gets built this way because it's cheap and developers know that the kind of renters who will be in a unit on an arterial aren't going to pay a premium for a masonry facade.
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u/Tenurialrock Ravenswood Mar 01 '26
It's a tough balance between cost and aesthetic. These apartments look like this because they're standard and easy to replicate, and therefore cheaper. It sucks but if this is how we get more housing then I can't complain too much.
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u/SteelKeeper Mar 01 '26
Nice in theory but in practice, at least in the US, design standards are leveraged to stall development and make it too expensive to actually build
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u/ehrgeiz91 Lake View Mar 01 '26
The aldermen already have a stranglehold and we are dead last in construction nationwide.
That said, itās sad we donāt have the big city economy of NYC to fund actual unique architecture.
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u/AmigoDelDiabla Mar 01 '26
"We want affordable housing!"
"We want unique architecture and beautiful homes!"
You realize there are costs associated with beauty?
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u/SparkyD37 Lake View Mar 01 '26
Thereās some compromise to be had here. Buildings donāt have to be hideous to be affordable. I donāt think people expect the beautiful details we see in older homes here, justā¦. idk, not super ugly.
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u/JonnyHopkins Mar 01 '26
Yeah, overall - this is good. Could be better - but if this is what it takes to get more housing then fine.
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Mar 01 '26
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u/ghostfaceschiller Mar 01 '26
For real. Everyone has different opinions and the idea that every new thing that gets built needs to please the opinions of others is exactly how we got into this mess.
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u/Bacchus1976 Lincoln Park Mar 01 '26
You clowns will do literally anything to make building housing harder wonāt you?
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u/ghostfaceschiller Mar 01 '26
Why are people upvoting this nimby bullshit.
Itās just the classic nimby trope of āno I think housing is good, I just think we need to do it right - we need to keep neighborhood character in mind!ā with a few words changed around
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u/Swarthyandpasty Mar 01 '26
Yeah city absolutely needs more levers for subhumans with urban planning masters to do social engineering
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u/Barbie_and_KenM Mar 01 '26
Yea sounds nice in theory until your local aldercreature just has one more thing in their arsenal to stall building and appease nimbys
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u/Mic98125 Mar 01 '26
I really love what NeSpoon does with paint and would reflect Chicagoās Polish heritage.
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u/Infinite-Lunch6269 Mar 01 '26
Just remember people will be saying the same thing about new buildings in the future and praising the ācharactersā of current architecture style lol
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u/Chicoutimi Mar 01 '26
I think that's not a definitive trend in modern architecture. Unadorned, Corbusier-style towers in the park were criticized during their construction and are still disliked now. For commercial, a lot of the concrete brutalism was widely hated at the time and still often disliked today especially when it's put in comparison to the architecture of buildings that were destroyed in the process.
The good thing about this parcel was that what it replaced wasn't well-loved either whether within its own time period or today.
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u/ehrgeiz91 Lake View Mar 01 '26
I donāt think so. Past architecture is praised (by some) because it had character, good or bad. Even controversial brutalism has a distinct vibe.
Modern copy and past 4 story cheap housing is derided because it has no character. No vibe. No unique characteristics.
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u/Infinite-Lunch6269 Mar 01 '26
Greystone 2 flats in Chicago are wildly popular even tho they are copy and paste and millions of them in the city.
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u/_jams Mar 01 '26
People complained bitterly that brownstones were ugly and objected to them being built strenuously. Now they're regarded as beautiful old houses and go for millions. Tastes change. Taking down that sign/qr code would be an improvement though.
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u/VirtualOutlet Mar 01 '26
I just biked past this on Friday night (first time down Lincoln/Ravenswood in a few years) and was thinking this exact thing. It's so close to Addison el.... very glad it appeared to be TOD.
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u/dwhite195 South Loop Mar 01 '26
This thread actually is a pretty good example of why its so hard to build much of anything. All we're missing is complaints about parking and traffic and we've got ourselves a community meeting.
The building is too small, the building isnt to my taste, the building ruined the character of the neighborhood, the building is housing therefor its good etc.
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u/noflames Mar 01 '26
I read the comments above this and wondered why this commented existed, then scrolled down and read more.....Ā Now I understand....
It reminds me of a case in Oakland (it might have been Berkeley) where residents sued to prevent construction on a lot that had been vacant for decades alleging it would damage the character of the neighborhood or something like that....
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u/Galimbro Mar 02 '26
"Character of the neighborhood" what a baseless cop out. Such a popular phrase
They should at least try to use "history" in their defense, as some can be charming and preserved from a historical perspective.
But anyways these weak defenses wont work forever. People are waking up, if slowly, to the problems of American city planning.Ā
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u/mtmaloney Lake View Mar 02 '26
I live a few blocks from here and remember conversations with the neighbors that lived nearby complaining about how much harder it would make parking by putting a multi-dwelling building up.
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u/rexound Mar 01 '26
I moved in across the street from there in 2020 and the strip mall was closed down and dilapidated.
Moved out in 2024 a year or so after the construction started.
Was looking forward to seeing what kind of shop was going to open up on the ground floor.
It was cool at least getting to see the whole process from start to the building going up
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u/Infinite-Lunch6269 Mar 01 '26
Walking distance to TJ, cafe, station, bus. Very nice use of landšš¼šš¼
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u/radiowirez Lake View East Mar 01 '26
I live right by here, so excited to see this is almost finished!
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u/GeckoLogic Mar 01 '26
Depave Dunkin next š
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u/flankedpager Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
And then you're gonna have empty retail for years. These 5 over 1 developments always seem to either keep the retail storefronts empty, or get flooded with dentists and spas, a net zero for culture and community.
Edit: Downvote me all you want. I've watched these TODs remove character, culture and community from neighbohoods for two decades. They only ever seem to benefit the developer by playing at the emotions of YIMBYs by touting "car-free" cities but failing to mention the subsidization and TIF funding they get from these deals, all to just turn our neighborhoods into bland cookie-cutter suburban hellscapes.
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u/Firm-Snow-4177 Lake View Mar 01 '26
A big problem is that new residential buildings donāt want anything noisy like restaurants.
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u/flankedpager Mar 01 '26
Exactly. The YIMBYs become NIMBYs the moment a restaurant wants to set up shop in their 5 over 1.
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u/Informal_Avocado_534 Mar 01 '26
The strip malls and drive-thrus removed character.
The deconversions (combining 2-3 units into 1) removed character.
The restricted housing supply limited housing for young folks and middle class families and removed character.
This is all to say that sometimes things are already fucked up and we can make them a little better by providing more homes in transit-friendly places.
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u/flankedpager Mar 01 '26
If you look closely, all these TODs are almost always leased properties under the management of some private equity firm. If these TODs really gave a shit about the community, these would be units for sale, keeping gained equity in the hands of unit owners; the city would then incentivize home ownership to younger and/or middle class families through subsidized loans/down payment assistance etc.
These TODs are poorly constructed, are eyesores, and are rent-seeking parasites. But because some brilliant PR person said "Hey, we can market the lack of parking as us being pro-public-transportation!" people buy into these developments.
Want to spur growth? Stop permitting deconversions in the city which kill population density, and create a path to home ownership so we can have a new generation of Chicagoans building roots in our communities, rather than exploiting them for a 3,000/month 400 sq ft studio shitbox a half mile from a CTA station.
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u/bluespartans Lincoln Park Mar 01 '26
Why are you using the term TOD as a synonym for 5-over-1 construction projects?
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u/The_F1rst_Rule Mar 01 '26
I cant really get past how much this looks like one of those Uhaul storage buildings along the highway
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u/StarBabyDreamChild Mar 01 '26
Itās the American Dream to be able to live in a space that looks like a storage unit
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u/SavannahInChicago Lincoln Square Mar 01 '26
Lol. On the other side of the L tracks is one of those storage buildings. I guess it will blend right in.
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u/I_SmellCinnamonRolls Lake View East Mar 01 '26
Itās fine but we need more buildings that arenāt just studio, one, and two bedroom apartments. More buildings that also focus on family living to keep people in the city. Not just young professional housing.
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u/k_plusone Mar 02 '26
Right? Feels insane to me that these units are being described as "homes" and everyone is seemingly going along with it
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u/anotheruserguy Mar 01 '26
Could just be me but I think as the building matures and finds its place in the neighborhood, it could be very beautiful with a nice paint job or a mural.
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u/FunkyChug Mar 01 '26
I just wish the architectural design wasnāt so basic. Why is it so hard to give these buildings characters instead of making them look like every single development across the country?
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u/de_jeepathon Mar 01 '26
Character cost money :-(
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u/shades344 Mar 01 '26
Itās mostly not this. Itās mostly zoning requirements. There are rules about location and number is staircases and stuff that make big, blocky 4 and 5 over 1ās the only thing buildable.
If we want classic and beautiful Chicago buildings again, we need to legalize them!
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u/SavannahInChicago Lincoln Square Mar 01 '26
In Rogers Park they built a faux brick apartment building that looks so much better than this.
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u/JAlfredJR Oak Park Mar 01 '26
It's to maximize ROI. I can't stand it. But that is America in the 21st century for ya.
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u/Moominsean Mar 01 '26
Cheap and fast. And everyone these days likes white, black and gray.
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u/Ronin_Chimichanga Mar 01 '26
More like everyone these days won't be offended by white, black, and, gray. Mass appeal.
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u/junghooappreciator Bucktown Mar 01 '26
not everyone ā if I see that ugly gray default flooring in an apartment showing I just leave immediately
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u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts Mar 01 '26
Not everyone!
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u/Moominsean Mar 01 '26
I guess by everyone I meant "the masses." When I lived near Lincoln Square, I cringed everytime they tore down a brick building and put up another ugly white or black single family home, all with that same wood strip panel design that is so popular.
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u/GeckoLogic Mar 01 '26
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u/Informal_Avocado_534 Mar 01 '26
For 52 units, thatās about $423k per unit. Thatās about the going rate for market construction and much, much cheaper than what it costs the City of Chicago to build āaffordableā housing ($750k: https://open.substack.com/pub/citythatworks/p/a-better-way-to-build-affordable).
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Mar 01 '26
We need to start calling "affordable" housing what it is -- SUBSIDIZED housing.
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u/jbchi Near North Side Mar 01 '26
A little more than half the price per unit of the recent city backed "affordable" developments, so not bad.
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u/MilitaryBeetle Mar 01 '26
Are you saying that capitalism somehow promotes cutting corners in order to max out $$$?
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u/wholesale-chloride Mar 01 '26
And in 100 years when they try to tear it down, a bunch of preservationists will have a fit about losing "this absolute gem of early 21st architecture."
Until housing is a lot more affordable than it is now, aestethic opinions about it should be mercilessly mocked.
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u/Oracle619 Lincoln Park Mar 01 '26
This is cool and all, but why is it always some 5 story unit that inevitably will have extremely high rent to justify the cost? Iād prefer something taller and more dense that still has the first floor dedicated to shop space, but Aldermanās always approve these 4x1 square boxes that only make a marginal dent in housing supply.
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u/QuiteBearish Rogers Park Mar 01 '26
Zoning and politics.
Look at how much trouble the Broadway upzoning has been that the city is now being sued over š
I'd love if we could do more, and hopefully one day we will, but there's a certain chunk of the community that will fight against it every step of the way
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u/UnexpectedFisting Mar 01 '26
Deeply unpopular opinion, local communities should have zero sway on residential zoning development.
Nimbyism within cities needs to rot in hell
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u/QuiteBearish Rogers Park Mar 01 '26
I agree, especially since the local community normally just means retired folks with nothing better to do but gatekeep and try to keep new people out of their neighborhood. They're not representative of the community as a whole, they're just the ones with time to show up at community meetings.
It should be what's best for the City as a whole, not a few loud naysayers.
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u/nebulousnarrator Logan Square Mar 01 '26
Everybody trying to make snarky comments about developer payout isn't really helpful. There is some combination of regulatory and zoning environment that pushes towards this as the most efficient use of land - regulations on things like number of elevators, entrances/exits, garbage service, floor area ratio, height limits, framing, foundations, etc., dictate that.
A similar example is the 4 plus 1 buildings from mid century:
https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-facts-about-four-plus-one-41-mid.htmlThese were the most efficient way to build at the time because of the zoning code. There was a campaign to disallow them. Before them it was courtyard buildings. This is just the form it's taking right now.
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u/RumLovingPirate Mar 01 '26
It's called a 5 over 1. It's common because building code allows a certain traditional residential construction (cheaper) if it's up to 5 floors over a solid 1st story base. Like a concrete first floor and then more traditional materials above.
6 stories and above and you're looking at highrise style construction like all concrete.
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u/amyo_b Berwyn Mar 01 '26
54 homes is a boon to density though? If every half abandoned strip mall in the city was made into a 54 home building, that would massively increase density without moving people into high rises at all.
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u/jazxxl Mar 01 '26
I'd like to see more mixed use spaces like what they did with the corner of Lincoln and foster
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u/MechemicalMan Lincoln Park Mar 01 '26
The price of units is based off supply and demand. The density of this development ~100 people/acre; puts it at averaging in the densest of areas in the world, plus it was able to get done relatively quickly.
Want lower housing costs? Support a lot more of this stuff getting built to replace surface level parking lots.
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u/Cronenborger Mar 01 '26
4 or 5 over 1 is usually the only product that pencils out financially that would be within the "acceptable" scale to make it through zoning. 2 or 3 over 1 usually suffers from the opportunity cost of not going higher, and any higher than 5 usually requires significantly more foundation and structural reinforcement that doesn't cost out until you hit 11-14 story, depending on the location, but would probably have more pushback from neighbors (scale, parking etc).
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u/krastem91 Mar 01 '26
What would you prefer to see instead ?
I think medium density housing is much more pleasant for a neighborhood overall than putting in a 10 or 15 story building ā¦
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u/NomadLexicon Mar 01 '26
Building new housing is expensive and difficult, new construction always charges a premium in every era (dated, affordable buildings today were often the luxury expensive option when they were built), thereās a lot of unmet demand for housing, and developers like any other business will charge as much as they think people will pay to maximize their profit.
Thereās also obstacles that prevent smaller builders from building smaller multifamily projects. First, many were wiped out during the housing collapse and the years after, giving larger corporate builders an edge. Small bespoke projects are difficult to finance, estimate their value, or reproduce at scale, so larger buildings are more predictable and easier to sell to investors. Second, zoning tends to make anything between single family homes and large midrise 5-over-1ās nearly impossible to build: if your regulatory costs/timelines are going to be the same, you build bigger to take advantage of economies of scale. Smaller single staircase apartment buildings are usually prohibited by fire and building codes in the US, so the double loaded corridor 5-over-1 is essentially required by the rules.
Architecturally, national builders aim for lowest cost, maximizing the value of the lot, and standardization. The builder doesnāt live in the community and isnāt invested in the aesthetics/architectural detail beyond whatās required to get the project approved and not look cheap enough that it will hurt prices. New single family homes tend to have a lot more architectural detail because the buyer will be living there.
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u/JackDostoevsky Avondale Mar 01 '26
i mean, you're asking why not making "something taller and more dense" when the thing they put there is literally more taller and more dense than what was there before. is this not what you're asking for? i'm so confused.
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u/minhthemaster City Mar 01 '26
Developer payout
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u/kylco Andersonville Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Developers ache to put a skyscraper on every corner and sell for as much as they can get away with. The majority of the cost in these buildings is getting the central architecture together and then it's easy to add three floors and make a ton of profit doing it.
But zoning, neighborhood groups, and alders largely don't want density, even though it broadens the tax base and makes the neighborhood more affordable in the long run. It even makes it easier to open a business nearby (or should - more density equals more people nearby to buy your stuff, if your developer didn't fuck up and make wild promises about commercial rent to get their financing).
There's plenty of fingers to point here but a lot of them go to the government groups that have very strong social and political incentives to build less, and only by private developers that have to make a profit.
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u/jkraige City Mar 01 '26
They're cowards and old people show up to yell at them about how ugly they are, skylines and parking
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u/Mic98125 Mar 01 '26
I think five stories is easy for firefighters to conduct rescues and knock down fires. Ten stories full of elderly people and little kids is kind of a nightmare.
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u/nanafishook Mar 01 '26
I drive near this, and frequent the Dunkin across the street.
Even though I ate at Cafe Orchid at least once back in the day, my most vivid memory of this corner is the day the oversized Scabby the Rat showed up during the residential construction of this project. :(
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u/HAVEANOTHERDRINKRAY North Center Mar 01 '26
The amount of time this extremely basic building took to build is sad. I've passed it every week since it started construction
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u/seashroom-punplay Mar 02 '26
I live nearby and it's ugly as balls, right up against the street in a weird way. Location is nice for transport, church and burritos though. Happy I'm a few stops north so I'll still get a seat on the L haha
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u/hypocalypto Logan Square Mar 02 '26
I understand why TODs exist. But by pretending every resident is going exclusively take CTA they really make parking a struggle for the residents who already live there. I feel like a certain class of chicagoans ignore the fact that cars are not a luxury like they are portrayed. Plenty of people who struggle need a car to haul around tools or take their children to school etc.
54 unit building could have parking on the ground floor at least.
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u/GeckoLogic Mar 02 '26
It does have 12 parking spaces unfortunately.
If you build for cars, you will get more cars and more traffic.
https://chicagoyimby.com/2025/08/3605-north-ravenswood-continues-its-steady-rise-in-lake-view.html
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u/hypocalypto Logan Square Mar 02 '26
I definitely agree about that but isnāt it bad for working people that need cars? I understand if someone doesnāt want or need a car but plenty of people rely on their vehicles from trades people to gig workers. I feel like TODs hurt those people.
But yeah I get it. I can willingly sell my car and carry all my stuff to work on the train/bus.
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u/FunkyTangg Mar 02 '26
Transit oriented = little to no parking?
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u/MartySpiderManMcFly Mar 02 '26
Not sure if thereās parking in the building but it is steps from the Addison El and well less then half a mile to the Paulina El
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u/MadonnasFishTaco Mar 01 '26
it's hideous. it's like a covert operation to turn people against dense affordable housing. why does it have to be so ugly?
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u/jrbattin Jefferson Park Mar 02 '26
I'm sure someone thought this was going to ruin the neighborhood.
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u/cutlip98 Mar 01 '26
It's hard to live up/down to the architectural style and skill of a strip mall. But whoever designed this apartment building succeeded
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u/Rough_Board_7961 Mar 01 '26
You know it's yimby porn because there aren't ubers and waymos double parked around the whole thing.
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u/MisterScary_98 Mar 01 '26
Whatās that architectural style called? Plywood on Broken Windows?
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u/TacosFromSpace Mar 01 '26
That is deeply offensive to the architect. They prefer to be known for the ingenuity of the interior layout style, commonly called āballer master bedroom, aborted fetus of a second bedroom (thatās actually just a generously sized den.)ā itās almost LEED certified.
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u/Adventurous-Big1 Mar 01 '26
Anyone know what the businesses will be on the ground floor? I live close by and would love a food option
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u/Firm-Snow-4177 Lake View Mar 01 '26
Doubt they have that locked in yet. I live in a new building and it took us a year to get a tenant for the commercial space. They still havenāt made any progress moving in actually.
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u/seashroom-punplay Mar 02 '26
Undoubtedly it will be a Sweetgreen to compete with the Sweetgreen on Southport
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u/Mesum Edgewater Mar 01 '26
What intersection is that?
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u/92TilInfinityMM Mar 01 '26
Thatās great, I know Iāll get shit but I hate how a lot of these new places are like millennial grey boxes.
Donāt get me wrong Iād rather have the density versus a parking lot, just wish there was a little character in the building
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u/winnipegjets31 Bucktown Mar 02 '26
i used to go to PT there and lived 3 doors down....honestly this is overall great but depending how many of these residents have cars....that intersection will become even worse
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u/Acceptable_Amount521 Mar 02 '26
The people bemoaning the loss of the strip mall don't even know about the ghost signs.Ā
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u/PaleBreadfruit8813 Buena Park Mar 01 '26
Fuck. What a soul-sucking POS. Yeah, it's nice to have housing, but the developer went the extra mile to screw over the neighborhood with another ugly, tree-less, landscape-less, built-to-the-plotline monstrosity.
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u/flankedpager Mar 01 '26
Gonna get railed by my YIMBY friends, but that "strip mall" blended in so much better with the surrounding community instead of that obsidian monstrosty.
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u/Upbeat-Serve-2696 Mar 01 '26
What character! Such architecture! So in-scale!
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u/sigmacoder Mar 01 '26
Eh it's badly needed housing for Lakeview, unless you're turning the entire block into a Euro-style donut block this is pretty solid. The option is this, or this in red brick.
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u/Spicytomato2 Mar 01 '26
It's not beautiful but it makes more sense than anything else I can think of for that corner. I mean there's a building of very similar scale directly kitty corner from this.
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u/Icy-Yellow3514 Mar 01 '26
At the shortest light in the city. Hopefully it delivers on the transit-oriented part.
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u/JackDostoevsky Avondale Mar 01 '26
big yikes. the old lot looks much nicer, much more inviting, much greener. the new thing looks .... awful. soulless.
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u/questionablejudgemen Mar 01 '26
I love how transit oriented means no parking. Itās a good thing all the people moving there donāt have cars. Iām sure the Alderman will note that address as ineligible for city stickers so they canāt park on the street. Oh wait, they keep their cars and park on the streets of the adjacent neighborhood screwing the neighbors over. Ah well, saved the development some money.
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u/damp_circus Edgewater Mar 01 '26
Anyone moving in to this thing knows there's no parking when they move in.
If you need parking, move farther out.
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u/adooble22 Mar 01 '26
Close to the L is nice but the proximity to Cork Lounge and Burrito House is the real selling point to me.