This four-unit mixed-use condominium building was developed, designed, and built by Michael Wilkinson (while with WBA/WBC). Located on a prime commercial strip in Chicago’s Roscoe Village neighborhood, the building blends seamlessly with the scale of the surrounding two and three-story structures. The building sets itself apart by taking a modern approach to both design and material composition, utilizing large expanses of glass and an innovative exterior rain-screen façade system. The building’s green roof creates a natural habitat for birds and bees, which influenced the project's name. Other sustainable features of the building include solar water panels that provide domestic hot water and hydronic heating for all residential units, passive solar heating with solar mass through concrete floors, and an improved building envelope with insulation levels beyond those required by code.
The units feature polished concrete floors and precast concrete ceilings that create a loft-like experience, while warm wood and lacquered cabinets add refinement to the third floor penthouse unit.
Natural light enters the apartment from multiple directions: both the front and back façades have generous amounts of glass, a landscaped interior courtyard provides light and views, and skylights shine down from above.
A custom stair leading to the roof was fabricated using wood salvaged from Hurricane Felix, which struck Nicaragua in 2007. Downed old-growth hardwood trees were extracted, milled, and shipped to the U.S., where the team from WBA strategically incorporated the material in several projects being designed at the time, including this one.
Window head details in every unit include continuous cove lighting that washes the concrete ceilings.
Rift Sawn Oak sliding and fixed doors create a warm wood finish that contrasts with the concrete and aluminum window frames. The wood finish clads a central pod in each unit, containing bathrooms, closets, storage, and mechanical space.
The 5,000 square-foot roof was highly programmed with a dining area, lounge and fireplace area, space for raised vegetable beds and plantings, and an extensive green roof which provides stormwater detention that reduces stress on an overburdened city sewer system.
In addition to the architectural design, Wilkinson designed and installed the roof garden, including perimeter hedges, seating, and a clump of River Birch trees.
A courtyard cut into the center of the building provides light to interior bedrooms, outdoor space for the second floor front unit, and natural light to the ground floor retail space through a 28' long skylight.
