Work is moving along at Kenect, a 227 unit apartment project in River West at the six-point intersection of Grand-Milwaukee-Halsted. The project developed by Akara Partners and designed by Pappageorge/Haymes features two buildings with a smaller 88 car parking garage, taking advantage of its transit oriented location atop a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line station.
The two building complex spanning a segment of Green Street includes a 14 story tower to the west and a 4 story low-rise building to the east. The tower has been topped out since late fall last year and is in the finishing stages of construction. The tower's apartments are stacked on top of the parking garage which serves both buildings, as well as a pedestal for the development's amenity deck.
The low-rise structure, freed from the constraints of having an allocation of parking, now has a large open ground floor space for retail with apartments immediately starting on the second floor, providing for a lively and active facade on all three sides of the triangular building. The lack of a internal garage also allows the low-rise to be framed in a format rarely seen in Chicago for multi-story construction, a structure primarily made up of wood. The stick-built frame is then reinforced with steel columns and beams, as well as stair and elevator cores assembled from concrete block. A large truss spans over an area in the building which will have an open light court, similar to the arrangement found on the mid-rise condo building across the street.
As the project moves towards completion, the first move-ins are expected soon this spring.
·A Final Farewell to the Gray Block at 500 N. Milwaukee Avenue [Curbed Chicago]
·Dense River West Development Finally Moving Forward [Curbed Chicago]
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