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Uptown National Bank Building, Marshall & Fox, 1924, 4753 N. Broadway. Photo Credit: Max Chavez / Preservation Chicago
“One of the most prominent and historic buildings in Uptown is getting a second life as an upscale apartment tower. The Bridgeview Bank building at 4753 N. Broadway will be redeveloped into 176 apartments by Cedar Street, a prolific development firm that has built hundreds of apartments in Uptown in recent years.
“The city’s Permit Review Committee in early November approved Cedar Street’s plans for the landmark bank building, which include adding a rooftop amenity deck and converting the bank’s lobby into a coworking space.
“The redevelopment project will breathe new life into a building that has followed the transformation of Uptown over the years. The Bridgeview Bank building was constructed in 1925, and four additional floors were added in 1928. It has twice been made a city landmark: when multiple bank buildings were landmarked in 2007 and as part of the Uptown Square District in 2016.
“Upper floors of the building will be converted into 176 apartments. The grand bank lobby and a mezzanine banking floor — used for a scene in the John Dillinger biopic “Public Enemies” — will be transformed into coworking space, said Mark Heffron, Cedar Street managing partner.
“Some historical aspects of the lobby will be removed, including a large marble reception desk in the middle of the floor and the caging behind some of the teller’s stations. Glass partitions will be added to the coworking space and near some interior stairwells. Art deco-style check-writing tables will be moved from the lobby, though they will be relocated and put into use elsewhere in the building.
“Some members of the Permit Review Committee, which oversees permits for landmark buildings, said they had reservations about the changes planned for the lobby. Heffron said the grand nature of the lobby area, plus the inability to change many of its historic features, made coworking space one of the only workable options. ‘We contemplated a lot of different uses for the main banking hall,’ Heffron said. ‘We landed on coworking and feel very strongly that might be the only use to preserve this space.’
“Cappleman said the building’s reuse will preserve an Uptown gem.
‘It’s a beautiful building,’ Cappleman said at the Permit Review Committee meeting. ‘I’m glad we’re doing everything we can to make sure it maintains itself for the next 100 years.’ “(Ward, Block Club Chicago, 11/17/20)
Preservation Chicago presented strong testimony in support of this adaptive reuse project. We played a significant role in the landmark designation of the Uptown Square Landmark District. This district provides protection to 57 properties within the Uptown Entertainment District, located along the commercial corridors of Lawrence, Broadway, and Racine.
This district provides protection to 57 properties within the Uptown Entertainment District, located along the commercial corridors of Lawrence, Broadway, and Racine. Landmark buildings now protected include the Uptown Theater, Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theater, Essanay Studios, Green Mill, Wilson Avenue “L” Station, Lawrence Hotel, People’s Church/Preston Bradley Center, and many of the beautiful historic commercial retail buildings, hotels and office buildings that make Uptown such an extraordinary neighborhood. The Landmark District also provides important economic incentives to help stimulate increased historically-sensitive investment and renovation.
In additional to strong advocacy for the Landmark District, Preservation Chicago pushed the proposal further by asking for the designation to extend beyond the façades and to include protections for the many wonderful interior lobbies and other notable spaces of the Riviera, and Aragon, the Uptown National Bank Building, and the WPA-Works Progress Administration murals in the Post Office.
