Innovative Housing Tour

Solar homes, contemporary homes, architectural features that stand alone as works of art, prefabricated and subsidized housing, skylights, and open floor planseach of these characteristics is present in the buildings included in the Innovative Housing tour.

From the late 19th-century Brewster Apartments, with its atrium skylights and glass-block walkways, to the 1937 Keck-Gottschalk-Keck Apartments, with its International style and solar design features, this tour chronicles the presence in Chicago of housing innovation. Frank Lloyd Wright's contributions to the design of affordable housing are acknowledged in his two prefabricated "System-Built" houses and his 1895 Waller Apartments, an early example of subsidized housing. These early efforts of architects and designers to address industrial-age housing issues such as affordability, energy efficiency, and the need for well-designed living spaces for people of all income levels, still appear fresh today.