Bryn Mawr Historic District A Step Closer To Landmark Status

EDGEWATER — A key city commission formally recommended an Edgewater historic district become a Chicago landmark while also denying a demolition permit in the district that would have made way for an apartment building.

The Commission on Chicago Landmarks unanimously gave a final landmark recommendation for the Bryn Mawr Historic District during a hearing Thursday. The commission granted a preliminary recommendation in April, and held a public hearing on the matter in June.

The commission found that the historic district met four out of seven criteria needed to be considered for landmark status: It’s a critical part of the city’s heritage, it has important architecture, it has works from important architects and it has a distinctive theme as a district. At a minimum, a potential landmark must meet two criteria.

The new landmark district — which is considered the first business district in the neighborhood — spans Bryn Mawr Avenue from Broadway to Sheridan Road, including notable buildings like the Edgewater Beach Apartments, 5555 N. Sheridan Road, and Belle Shore Apartment Hotel, 5550 N. Kenmore Ave.

The district has some of the oldest structures in Edgewater, including some dating back to the 1890s, Edgewater Historical Society President John Holden previously told Block Club.

The Bryn Mawr Historic District is already on the National Register of Historic Places, but becoming a Chicago landmark opens it up to additional financial incentives and opportunities, like the Adopt-A-Landmark program, which makes grants available for restoration projects.

The landmarking of the Bryn Mawr Historic District still needs a final approval from the City Council’s Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards and the full council.

The Bryn Mawr business corridor suffered greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic and also endured the rebuilding of the Red Line’s north branch, which saw the closure of the Bryn Mawr station and construction-related headaches for more than four years.

But the area is experiencing a bit of a bounce-back, with a slew of new business openings on the corridor as well as the opening of the renovated Bryn Mawr Red Line station last summer.

During Thursday’s hearing, the landmarks commission — an arm of the city’s Department of Planning and Development — also denied a demolition permit for developer Harlem Irving Companies to knock down a building within the district at 1114 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.

The developer was hoping to demolish it — along with two neighboring buildings at 1106 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. and 5614 N. Winthrop Ave. — in order to build a six-story apartment building with 95 apartments and about 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, the group said previously.

In May, the landmarks commission approved Harlem Irving Companies’ application to demolish the buildings at 5614 N. Winthrop Ave. and 1106 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., but they preliminarily denied the demolition permit for 1114 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.

The commission approved the first two demolition permits because the buildings are considered to be non-contributing to the historic district, meaning they have seen “extensive loss of historic features” due to previous alterations, they said. 

But the city considers the structure at 1114 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. a contributing building to the historic district because it displays elements of Classical Revival style. Demolishing this two-story brick building, built in 1909, would have an “adverse affect” on the historic district because it contributes to the district’s historic elements, representatives with the Department of Planning and Development argued.  

The development team told the commission last month and again Thursday they’ve already spent $6 million on the proposed development site since they bought it in 2020. It wouldn’t be economically feasible for them to alter the project to exclude the 1114 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. site, and the project might not move forward without the demolition permit, they said.

The team also argued the building doesn’t have characteristics of Classical Revival style except for the cornices, and therefore shouldn’t be a contributing building to the historic district.

However, the commission stuck to its initial denial and gave a final denial of the demolition permit Thursday afternoon.

Following this denial, there is an option for the property owner to request a hearing to reconsider the decision based on economic hardship, according to the city’s Landmarks Ordinance. This means the property owner would argue for an exception on the basis that “denial of a permit will result in the loss of all reasonable and beneficial use or return from the property,” according to the ordinance.

It’s unclear if that is an avenue Harlem Irving Companies will pursue, as representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment on the matter.