Lakefront for less
Draper and Kramer's Lake Park Crescent spurs South Side renaissance
by Dan Schuyler

Anyone who has perused the market for new construction on the North Side knows that it’s nearly impossible to find a two-bedroom condo in a good location for less than $300,000, or a masonry rowhome for under half a million. But what if you could find brand new homes for less than the increasingly exorbitant going rates? What if they had lake views? Even better, what if they were across the street from the lake, perched on a three-acre park 15 minutes from the Loop?

The respected real estate firm of Draper and Kramer has changed the question from one of “if” into “when,” and the answer is now at Lake Park Crescent, a 485-unit development at 41st and Lake Park, just north of Hyde Park and only a couple of miles south of the ever-expanding South Loop.

The Chicago Housing Authority buildings that once stood on this site were demolished in 1998, and today, long after the dust has cleared, the area is in the midst of a massive transformation. Lake Park Crescent, Draper and Kramer’s new community of condos, single-family rowhomes, duplexes and apartments, is only the most recent and grand example of a renaissance that’s been quietly building steam in North Kenwood-Oakland for more than a decade.

By the late ‘80s, North Kenwood-Oakland had suffered the same urban ills as many city communities, which resulted in depopulation and a profusion of empty lots and abandoned properties. But thanks to an energetic alderman, local activists and a couple of city-sponsored “Parade of Homes” events, the neighborhood had turned the corner even before the real estate market of the ‘90s began to heat up.

Today, blocks that once looked desolate are lined with brand new homes and rehabbed greystones, and North Kenwood-Oakland has become a unique lakefront enclave with its own charm and identity.

Draper and Kramer hopes to build on this growth with a project that has brought real momentum to the neighborhood, encouraging development even before it had broken ground.

“Lake Park Crescent is part of a massive restoration effort on the South Side,” says Michael Kennelly, who is marketing homes in the new community for Draper and Kramer. “We estimate that there are as many as 5,000 units in the area in various stages of development, including some other mixed-income projects, but none of them has the same intimate association with the lake and the lakefront.”

And few have this sort of scale. Lake Park Crescent sits on 17 acres nestled between Lake Park and Oakenwald and stretching from 40th to 42nd. A new pedestrian bridge at 41st will lead directly from the homes and their crescent-shaped park to the new beach, just across Lake Shore Drive.

“Lake Park Crescent responds to the cry to recreate the neighborhoods of the past,” says Domingo Tiu, a partner in Campbell Tiu Campbell, master architects for the project. Noting that the new community utilizes the Chicago neighborhood street and alley grid system, Tiu points out that “the design is intended to link the project to the existing neighborhoods in a harmonious, orderly fashion, and to act as a catalyst in drawing the neighborhood and the lakefront together.”

The bridge is currently the focus of an international design competition, and other lakefront improvements will include a new pier and a field house. Meanwhile, Draper and Kramer is working to get the 39th Street Metra stop back in service.
“The walkway bridge and the beach are two of the outstanding features of this project,” Kennelly says. “They really add validity to the idea that this is a true lakefront community.”

The $125 million project is being built in accordance with a CHA-approved master plan that calls for a mixed-income community with one-quarter of the units reserved for CHA residents, one-quarter “affordable” units priced relative to income levels and half priced at market rates, all seamlessly integrated in the development.

Phase I of the project covers the northern two-thirds of the site and consists of 148 rental units, which are either occupied or now available for rent, and 138 residences currently on the market, with delivery scheduled for late next year.

The Phase I mix of for-sale homes includes a variety of condos with one to three bedrooms in an eight-story mid-rise and two six-flats as well as simplex and duplex “Cityhomes.” One-bedroom Cityhome condos start in the $170s and two-bedroom condos in the $250s. The prices include deeded garage parking. Ten single-family rowhomes include 2,700 square feet and two-car detached garages, priced from the $470s.

Common unit features include nine-foot ceilings throughout, multi-media pre-wiring, hardwood floors in living areas, bedroom carpeting, stainless kitchen appliances, designer kitchen cabinets, granite countertops, ceramic tile baths, Moen faucets and Kohler fixtures.

The designs of the rowhomes, Cityhomes and six-flats blend in with the architectural legacy of the North Kenwood-Oakland neighborhood, using face brick, renaissance limestone and tall windows.

“We are paying great attention to context both structurally and materially,” says Tiu. “The types of buildings are alternated; pitched and flat roof designs are mimicked; garages are detached along alleyways, and all front entrances are on the street. Design-wise, we have paid particular attention to the greystones in the area by adopting the use of porches, cornices, gables and vestibules, and this gives the Lake Park Crescent buildings the same type of architectural expression as is found throughout the adjoining neighborhood.”

At press time, a sales office for Lake Park Crescent, www.LakeParkCres-cent.com, was scheduled to open Oct. 2 on site, at 4117 S. Lake Park.