Invest South/West

March 08, 2021
Auburn Gresham

Invest South/​West is an unprece­dent­ed com­mu­ni­ty improve­ment ini­tia­tive from May­or Lori E. Light­foot to mar­shal more than $750 mil­lion in pub­lic fund­ing while coor­di­nat­ing across mul­ti­ple City depart­ments, com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions and cor­po­rate part­ners in order to real­ize the re-acti­va­tion of 12 key com­mer­cial cor­ri­dors across 10 neigh­bor­hoods on Chicago’s South and West sides.”

Today, the May­or of Chica­go and Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Devel­op­ment Com­mis­sion­er Mau­rice Cox, announced the team’s selec­tion for a site at 838 West 79th Street in the Auburn Gre­sham neighborhood.

Ini­tia­tives such as INVEST South/​West are crit­i­cal in advanc­ing our goal to enhance the socioe­co­nom­ic vibran­cy of our his­toric South and West Sides,” May­or Light­foot said. Each of these win­ning pro­pos­als will con­tribute to this goal by giv­ing res­i­dents access to new and excit­ing cul­tur­al, afford­able hous­ing, employ­ment resources. I look for­ward to see­ing these projects come to life and sup­port­ing oth­er INVEST South/​West projects just like them in the near future.”

Col­lab­o­rat­ing with Ever­green Real Estate Group and Imag­ine Group, Ross Bar­ney Architect’s pro­pos­es a dynam­ic new build­ing along the 79th street cor­ri­dor. The team’s vision was to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment that empha­sizes resilient, healthy and sus­tain­able urban liv­ing. This is achieved through an ethos of liv­ing that places bal­ance on inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or space, pub­lic and pri­vate. A gen­er­ous front set­back breathes new life into the street with space for plant­i­ng, trees, and out­door din­ing. Juli­et bal­conies and ter­races fur­ther fos­ter a con­nec­tion to fresh air and the neigh­bor­hood beyond. 

Thanks to INVEST South/​West, res­i­dents in Auburn Gre­sham and our neigh­bor­ing South and West com­mu­ni­ties are able to turn their dreams of entre­pre­neur­ship into real­i­ty,” said 17th Ward Alder­man David Moore.

The pro­posed design breaks up the block-long site through a series of shift­ed set­backs that pro­vide scale in rela­tion to its neigh­bor across the street: a new Healthy Liv­ing Hub being devel­oped by the Greater Auburn Gre­sham Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion, Urban Grow­ers Col­lec­tive, and Green Era Part­ners with sup­port from Invest South/​West, the Pritzk­er Traubert Foundation’s Chica­go Prize, and var­i­ous oth­er partners.

We are hon­ored to con­tin­ue col­lab­o­rat­ing with res­i­dents of the Auburn Gre­sham neigh­bor­hood (Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects’ design for the 79th Street Metra Sta­tion is cur­rent­ly under con­struc­tion). Equi­table urban liv­ing deserves thought­ful design and we hope to deliv­er an inspir­ing build­ing that will fos­ter growth along the 79th Street Cor­ri­dor” said Car­ol Ross Bar­ney, Design Principal/​Founder of Ross Bar­ney Architects.

For more infor­ma­tion vis­it chica​go​.gov.

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