Hilliard Towers Apartments, formerly known as the Raymond Hilliard Homes CHA

housing project Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...

, is a residential high-rise development in the near South Side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. It was designed by

Bertrand Goldberg Bertrand Goldberg (July 17, 1913 – October 8, 1997) was an American architect and industrial designer, best known for the Marina City complex in Chicago, Illinois, the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world at the time of complet ...

and is bounded by Clark Street, State Street, Cullerton Street, and

Cermak Road Cermak Road, also known as 22nd Street, is a 19-mile, major east–west street on Chicago's near south and west sides and the city's western suburbs. In Chicago's street numbering system, Cermak is 2200 south, or twenty-two blocks south of the ...

. In 1999, it was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as the Raymond M. Hilliard Center Historic District. The development was named for Raymond Marcellus Hilliard, who was the director of the

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

Department of Welfare from 1954 until his death in 1966.

Construction

Design began in 1963, with the increasing demand for affordable public housing and

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

projects growing in popularity throughout the country. Goldberg designed the structure to be supported almost exclusively by the outer shell, as opposed to

Marina City Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex in Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America, designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg. The multi-building complex opened between 1963 and 1967 and occupies almost an entire ...

, which was supported by its core. His opinion of other public housing projects was that they were developed in such a way as to punish residents for being poor; Goldberg wanted to design a home that residents would be proud of. Residents were vetted carefully and as a result, crime and social problems at Hilliard Homes were considerably lower than at other CHA housing projects. It was the only project never to require a uniformed police detail. The twin cylindrical towers were reserved for seniors and the two adjoining half-circle buildings were reserved for low-income families.

Redevelopment

By the early 1990s, the buildings had fallen into disrepair. In 1997, the CHA initiated a process of financing and redevelopment that spanned 9 years, ending in 2006. The property is currently mixed-income, with a combination of middle-class residents paying market rate, plus low-income families and senior citizens with Section 8 vouchers.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Public housing in Chicago Residential skyscrapers in Chicago South Side, Chicago Historic districts in Chicago National Register of Historic Places in Chicago Residential buildings completed in 1966 Round buildings Bertrand Goldberg buildings Modernist architecture in Illinois Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois 1966 establishments in Illinois