Onni Group’s 39-floor residential tower on the rise in Old Town
Published: 3/31/19
The 39-floor building rising at 202 W Hill St. in Old Town is Onni Group’s second component to their Atrium Village redevelopment plan. HPA designed the building, which will rise approximately 430 feet and contain 428 rental units. These Old Town apartments will be perched atop a six-floor parking podium containing 426 parking stalls.
In the planning stages of development, 202 W Hill received a height adjustment from 340 feet to 430 feet and an overall unit increase from 337 to 428. Developers eliminated a couple buildings and made other adjustments to their project, allowing for the increase in overall height of the remaining buildings.
The area between the affluent Gold Coast and poverty-stricken Cabrini Green neighborhoods was long-considered undesirable by developers. It was a group of church leaders in the late-seventies that decided to take a chance and develop mixed-income housing in the area.
Saint Matthew Methodist, LaSalle Street, Holy Family Lutheran and Fourth Presbyterian church leaders announced plans to develop housing at Division and Orleans, in hopes of providing a place where Chicagoans of different ethnicities and incomes could live together between the Gold Coast and Cabrini Green. The plans were realized through a state-financed loan, insured by Uncle Sam.
The original Atrium Village complex was completed in 1979 and consisted of one, nine-floor residential building surrounded by several low-rises. At the time, the project was a success, creating a mini economic and development boom in the area.
Old Town Park, the first component of the Atrium Village redevelopment plan, is already completed and leasing apartments just north of 202 W Hill.
