![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-the-rookery-2020-01.jpg?w=620\")
\nThe Rookery at LaSalle and Adams streets in Chicago in 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-historic-loop28.jpg?w=620\")
\nThe Monadnock Building, 53 W. Jackson Blvd., on July 11, 2017. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Holabird](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-historic-loop32.jpg?w=620\")
\nHolabird & Roche’s Marquette Building, 140 S. Dearborn St., on July 11, 2017. (Brian Cassella\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"Frank](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-Robie-House-01.jpg?w=620\")
\nFrank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago’s Hyde Park on March 26, 2019. (Abel Uribe\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/ctc-l-promontory-apartments.jpg?w=620\")
\nThe Promontory Apartments, the first skyscraper designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in Chicago, on Sept. 19, 2019. (Jos\u00e9 M. Osorio\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Show Caption<\/p>\n
1 of 5<\/p>\n
The Rookery at LaSalle and Adams streets in Chicago in 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
Expand<\/a><\/p>\n But brick is no guarantee of design quality. The city is flooded with dull and uninteresting structures clad in the material. But thoughtfully designed and detailed, brick can evoke the full history of architecture and elevate a building\u2019s status.\u00a0<\/p>\n The following brick-faced projects of note have been recently approved or financed or are under construction. They\u2019re promising designs that have the potential to become very good neighbors \u2014 and might point to a broader interest in creating appealing architecture that fits in.\u00a0<\/p>\n A 66-unit brick building at 1201 W. Kinzie St.<\/a> at the northern edge of the booming Fulton Market District was designed by Dirk Denison Architects. At just five stories tall, it\u2019s a throwback in scale for this rapidly densifying neighborhood. Tucked between Kinzie and the railroad tracks, it\u2019s a very straightforward building whose mass is mitigated by a series of notched setbacks. But the renderings shown to date are rather dull and just a bit off; this could become a forgettable and uninspired apartment block, except Dirk Denison is a very detailed-oriented architect who often works with wealthy clients on commercial and residential projects. The color of the glazed brick and mortar, the quality of the windows, and the promised bronze railings and details will be critical to the building\u2019s architectural success.\u00a0<\/p>\n A new four-story-tall, 59-unit apartment block at 1728 N. Clybourn Ave.<\/a> was proposed late last year for a site half a block north of the North\/Clybourn Red Line station on the west side of the street. Featuring large windows that recall the Clybourn Corridor\u2019s industrial past, the Eckenhoff Saunders design displays a modern minimalist sensibility. Balconies are used judiciously to break the overall mass into three separate volumes along the streetscape while differently colored brick gives each piece its own identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n This four-story-tall brick building that\u2019s nearing completion at 2237 W. Roscoe St.<\/a> in Roscoe Village is quite appealing. Designed by En Masse Architecture and Design with a+c architects, the design displays a sense of weight that\u2019s appropriate for brick construction. Subtle stringcourses tie the punched windows together. The initial rendering showed deep horizontal banding around the building\u2019s corner that were unfortunately omitted, but the building holds up under scrutiny. According to the project\u2019s website, the six condominium apartments have already been sold.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fully approved and permitted, the new building at 2724 N. Lehmann Court<\/a> in Lincoln Park promises a spare minimalist essay in brick. It\u2019s designed by Studio Dwell, which has been creating crisp contemporary residential designs for more than two decades. The accomplished small firm was rather inexplicably the sole Chicago firm featured in a new book by former Architectural Record editors that documents design-savvy designers between the coasts. <\/p>\n At 2724 N. Lehmann, we\u2019ve lost a decent, if somewhat unassuming, three-flat. But this is an object lesson in how to densify an already-dense Lincoln Park neighborhood without breaking the prevailing residential scale. The new structure is not much taller (five versus three stories) than its neighbors while creating 19 units in place of just three. The renderings are a bit vague, but Studio Dwell\u2019s track record indicates that this is a building worth watching.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just recently proposed, the five-story-tall block at 2758 N. Mozart St.<\/a> in Logan Square was designed by Chicago Common Studio and Gansari & Associates. It\u2019s solid and almost classical in its somewhat staid overall composition. The building seems even more solid than the other projects here due to its massive masonry pier that holds the corner of Mozart and Diversey Avenue. That\u2019s in part due to the building\u2019s unusual interior configuration, with four, two-story-tall townhouses along Mozart. Three of these units are within the overall five-story-tall volume, with another occupying a lower \u201cbustle\u201d at the south end of the building. There\u2019s some retail space along Diversey, with 36 apartments filling the rest of the structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Department of Planning and Development just recently selected a very promising two-building transit-oriented development at 1515 and 1607 W. 63rd St.<\/a>\u00a0in West Englewood designed by architects Beehyyve L3C and Alligood Song. These two smart triangular structures will be located along 63rd at each end of the 63rd\/Ashland Green Line station. They\u2019re relatively small, with 18 units each and some ground floor retail spaces, but their gracefully curved brick and glass corners sport a sleek contemporary look that should be a notch above many recent city-backed efforts in the neighborhoods of the South and West sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n While each of these projects is promising, there\u2019s still a deep design conservatism to each of them. Not every building needs to be \u2014 nor should be \u2014 extraordinary. But Chicago is a city of great achievers: John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Wright, Mies, Harry Weese, Helmut Jahn, Carol Ross Barney, Jeanne Gang, John Ronan and many others.\u00a0<\/p>\n While none of these new projects reaches those heights, they promise good architecture \u2014 which isn\u2019t always easy to find these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan\u2019s biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.<\/p>\n Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For all the attention that glass and steel garners, it\u2019s brick that captures the soul of Chicago\u2019s architecture.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[407770,407769,407773,96187,960,271917,29449,5386,1818,407772,407771],"class_list":["post-1018880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-1201-west-kinzie","tag-2237-west-roscoe","tag-and-the-marquette-building","tag-bricks","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-architecture","tag-frank-lloyd-wright","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-the-monadnock","tag-the-rookery"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117144401935671731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}