The 19 new apartment buildings at Park Douglas are designed to fit into Chicago’s historic North Lawndale neighborhood. The 137 apartments are part of grand plan to bring a total of 300 new units of mixed-income housing to the neighborhood and help Mount Sinai Hospital with its plans to build a new facility.
Park Douglas opened in July 2012 to a mix of public housing residents, low-income households, and 28 households paying unrestricted market rents.
About a third of the new apartments were built on land that was once public housing. The rest were built on 15 vacant lots less than two blocks away. The remainder of the old public housing site will become Mount Sinai’s new hospital and ambulatory care center, which swapped land with the project. Eventually Mount Sinai’s old hospital complex next door will be redeveloped, potentially into more affordable housing.
Mount Sinai will provide 300 hours of health and wellness services annually to Park Douglas residents, including an after-school program for kids.
The buildings are designed to fit into the neighborhood. Most are in the style of North Lawndale’s century-old brick and greystone townhouses. Closer to the hospital the architecture becomes more contemporary. Each has its own unique masonry façade.
A mix of sources, including federal low-income housing tax credits, HOME funds, and local programs, financed the $44 million development.
