The Home Front

(Above) The former Wayman African Methodist Episcopal Church. Photo: @properties Christie’s International Real Estate / Compass. BY DON DEBAT In the heart of what was once the nation’s most infamous public housing project, a 137-year-old church is being gutted for $1.4 million condos – anchoring a luxury transition that developers are rebranding as ‘Gold Coast West.’ The Near North Side neighborhood once infamously known as the Cabrini-Green public housing “ghetto” is at a cr

By Don DeBat Chicago home buyers may have to look at the housing market through long-range binoculars if they hope to see affordable...

Don & Chester DeBat at 1649 N. Halsted Garden late 1950s By Don DeBat Cabrini-Green has created lasting memories for many long-time Old...

(Above) Rendering by GREC Architects of Old Town Canvas, including a Walgreens store at lower left. (Click on image to view larger...

(Above) 534 West Division Street in the Cabrini-Green housing project, photographed in 1998 by Camilo J. Vergara (Library of Congress)....

(Above) Area in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood in which a revised “Old Town Canvas” is planned. (Click on image to view larger version.)...