Chicago Union — A C40 Competition

Chicago, IL

Lead Developer — Campbell Coyle

Onion Flats

Heartland Housing Inc.

Spiritos Properties

Council on Open Buildings

Onion Flats

Skender

Swinerton Mass Timber

Civic Artworks

Omni-Systems

RDH Building Science, Inc

Transsolar KlimaEngineering

DB|HMS

Terra Engineering

Thornton Tomasetti

Chicago's C40 Reinventing Cities Competition 2020 sought innovative ideas for creating new beacons of sustainability and resiliency situated within the heart of The Loop.

Inspired by these aspirations, the project establishes an attainable vision for affordable housing anchored by public spaces that bring the city together. Our design connects the community within the Loop and celebrates its potential: the convergence of all neighborhoods, a convening place connected to all communities, and all of our people.

We imagine a future where a redesigned Pritzker Park sits at the base of a connected transit hub surrounded by micro-retail and a venue specifically designed for events and performances by the surrounding community organizations.

The environment will be authentic and playful, capturing the youthful spirit of the surrounding higher education context and Harold Washington Library while creating a place that appeals to all generations.

Driven by sustainability performance with net-zero, open building concepts, and passive house standards, we propose a mass-timber structure. A future-focused construction technique that aligns Chicago's building codes with national and international standards for timber construction.

Planned as a 15-story, 200-unit residential tower above Pritzker Park, the development seeks to address the prevalence of homelessness in Chicago's Loop; the residential tower will contain two components: a 60-unit affordable component of inter-generational housing and an attainable market-rate component of 140 units.

The attainable market-rate development will emphasize accessible micro-units that will have broad appeal to young and working professionals. The affordable development will combine housing for seniors and at-risk young adults with unit sizes that adhere to City and State criteria.