McCrory Senior Apartments

In designing the McCrory Senior Apartments, a new 62-unit affordable senior housing building led by Brinshore Development and First Baptist Congregational Church (FBCC), Landon Bone Baker Architects looked to the surrounding community for contextual cues to create a building that would feel like it belonged in this neighborhood. Multi-story bays, typical in Chicago’s residential vernacular, are used to break the front plane of the building and to anchor horizontal massing segments. Brick and stone materials, punctuated with decorative brick corbelling and stone bands, pay respect to the historic architecture immediately surrounding McCrory. An abstracted quatrefoil pattern engraved in sections of cast stone with a mural inspired by stained glass reference FBCC’s historic features. This transit-oriented development located on 10 previously vacant lots on Chicago’s Near West Side is just three blocks from the United Center and easily accessible to restaurants, retail shops, supportive services and healthcare facilities. The building offers numerous amenities including a staffed management office, community space, fitness room, 24-seat multimedia theater and rear patio. The building also features an exterior “front porch” seating area that creates a welcoming entrance while enhancing the pedestrian experience on the street. Although the building is five stories tall, it is set back from the sidewalk to graciously accommodate pedestrians and minimize excessive shading on the sidewalk.