411: New Homes for Artists?

The City of Chicago announced a proposal for a new, affordable housing community on the South Side at the site of the historic Hotel Strand in Woodlawn. The Strand Artists Lofts, as they will be called, are designed to invoke the jazz spirit that once thrived in Woodlawn in the 1920s. “There is a growing amount of arts activity in Woodlawn and the South Side and the Strand will be an important connection to it,” says Barbara Koenen, the Director of Chicago Artists Resource in the city’s Cultural Planning Division at Cultural Affairs, which is overseeing the project. The location is just blocks from the University of Chicago’s planned Logan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts. “[It was] a combination of the rare city-owned property that lends itself to artist live/work space, and a developer who is interested in that type of project in that neighborhood,” Koenen says. There will be an information meeting for interested parties at the Grand Ballroom at 6351 South Cottage Grove this Saturday at noon.