$33M Henry Horner Project Starts This Summer

The first phase is part of a $160-million, 764-unit redevelopment of the project involving Brinshore Development that will provide replacement housing for CHA residents who once lived in the Henry Horner high-rises, as well as rental and condominium units priced at affordable and market rates. Brinshore Development also is involved in a redevelopment of the former Robert Taylor Homes complex on the city's South Side.

Separate developments on 5.6 acres in the 2200 blocks of Washington and Lake streets as well as 3.8 acres in the 1800 blocks of Washington and Lake streets received favorable recommendations Thursday from the plan commission.

The "New Urbanism" residential development is a collaborative effort between various government agencies, community groups and attorneys representing displaced CHA tenants, officials say. However, the process hasn't been without pitfalls, including one that was filled by Mayor Richard M. Daley at the 11th hour.

Residents and community activists were disappointed to learn that a community center run by a 70-year-old man who has worked with youth in the CHA project was not in the plans because of the extra costs the developer of the project was unwilling to pay. However, verbal assurances came Wednesday from the mayor's office as well as CHA executive director Terrence Peterson.

"We fought to keep it there," says 27th Ward Alderman Burnett. "This is very important to the neighborhood and very important to me."

The design of the project not only includes low- and mid-rise buildings, but reinstates the grid street pattern in the development, replacing the "superblock" concept of a cluster of large, high-rise structures commonly used to build the city's public housing projects.