Two affordable housing buildings are set to rise on the former site of the Robert Taylor Homes in Bronzeville, transforming an area that has long been a symbol of the city’s past policy failures on public housing.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, speaking Wednesday at a groundbreaking for the $40 million, 52-unit project, said the two-building project — called Legends South A3 — will help the area move beyond the legacy of disinvestment that left spaces vacant.
“It’s going to bring new life to a footprint of the old Robert Taylor homes. And revitalizing this area along State Street brings new retail and development opportunities for the entire community,” he said.
The new complex at 4520 S. State St. will include a three-story walk-up building with 12 apartments, and a four-story elevator-serviced building with 40 apartments.
The larger building will offer 19 one-bedroom, 27 two-bedroom and six three-bedroom units. Twenty-one of the 52 units are designated for families from CHA’s waitlist.
Ten of the units will be rented at market rate, while the other 42 will be affordable units.
Designed by LBBA and Brook Architecture, the project will also include a 3,500-square-foot commercial space on the ground floor of the four-story building, a public plaza at 45th and State streets, and 47 parking spaces.
Officials said the housing complex marks a milestone in the transformation of the former Robert Taylor Homes site. It is the third on-site project to be built in the footprint of the former Chicago Housing Authority public housing development.
The Robert Taylor Homes opened in 1962 and was the largest public housing complex in the city. It stretched along State Street from 39th to 54th streets.
The buildings were demolished in 2007. That was after the homes became “a symbol of disinvestment, redlining and policy failures,” said Lissette Castañeda, commissioner of the city’s Department of Housing.
“Underfunded and overcrowded, the Robert Taylor homes became synonymous with concentrated poverty and systemic neglect,” she said. “But today we look at Legends South, and it will represent what housing justice can look like.”
Two completed developments at the homes, Hansberry Square at 4034 S. State St. and Savoy Square at 4448 S. State St., are part of the ongoing revitalization of the area.
The $40.8 million project is funded by $10 million in reallocated tax increment financing funds, $2.9 million in HOME funds, $1.5 million in low-income housing tax credits from the Department of Housing and the Department of Planning and Development, and $7.5 million from the CHA.
The project is expected to take 16 months to complete.