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Michigan Place Condominiums and
Town Homes
For the first time in its more than 100-year
history, IIT has initiated a process to create a residential
community for faculty and staff adjacent to its Main
Campus. This proposal represents one of the main strategies
of the 1996 master plan to develop a true sense of a
university community around and on the campus, thereby
facilitating increased informal exchanges among students
and faculty, enlivening the campus environment, and
increasing the links to the surrounding community.
In 1998, the team of Shorebank Development
Corporation and Optima, Inc. was engaged
by the university to develop new residential housing
on IIT-owned lots on a block adjacent to and just east
of the campus - Michigan to Indiana, and 31st to 32nd
Streets.
Shorebank was selected through a year-long
process for its long history of successful residential
developments in the city. Optima was selected through
a joint review process by Shorebank and IIT based on
its many successful townhome developments in the northern
suburbs and the strong links of its principals to IIT'S
and its College of Architecture.
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Optima,
Inc. developed preliminary site plans and designs for
the Michigan Place town homes and condominiums in October
1998. These plans were reviewed and approved by IIT's
Mies Campus Committee, the Gap Community Organization,
the Mid-South Planning and Development Commission and
the Near South Planning Board in meetings in October
and November 1998. The city approved the planned development
application in April 1999. The model/sales office is
located at 3157 S. Michigan Avenue.