Construction of the Ravenswood Senior Living community has been completed and is ready for residents to move in. Built by Chicago Housing Authority along with Synergy Construction Group, the community on Sunnyside Avenue in Ravenswood neighborhood, is a 193-unit community that was constructed with the aim of being affordable. The US$81 million complex saw the former Ravenswood Hospital that, established in 1974 and was vacant for almost two decades, converted into an affordable senior living community. The 10-story building has 119 units for participants in the Illinois Supportive Living Program and 74 one-bedroom independent living apartments for CHA residents. This offers an alternative to nursing home care that is administered by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
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The communities, although both in the same building, have separate entrances and operate independently. Asbury Healthcare operates the supportive living community and Evergreen is managing the independent living community. Evergreen revitalized and maintained much of the original structure, including the facade, which was lightly spruced up. A small addition on the building’s north side features a facade of metal panels whose colors complement the existing brick and mirror the design of the adjacent French international school.
Commentary on the Ravenswood senior community
“Eighteen months after breaking ground, we are proud to announce the completion of this long-awaited and vital project that creates affordable senior housing where none previously existed. This senior community is a great representation that solutions to the affordable housing shortage can be found right in our backyard. With the right partners, underutilized and vacant sites can be reimagined as low-income housing that supports the health of communities by improving the lives of residents,” said the founder and chairman of Evergreen Real Estate Group, Jeff Rappin.
