Cohousing-L Mailing List: Chicago Cohousing

[Philip Proefrock (PSPROEFR]

With all this recent discussion about possible cohousing in Chicago,
this seems to be a good time for me to delurk.  I am a graduate
student in architecture at Miami (OH) University, and I am presently
working on a thesis project which involves a 25-30 family
cohousing community which also incorporates business (and perhaps
retail) spaces (so this also relates to the sustainability/commuting/
telecommuting discussion).  My proposed site for this project is on
Shefffield Ave. in Chicago; not too far from Wrigley Field.

I am not working with a 'real' client on this project, but I would
certainly appreciate the input of those Chicago area potential
cohousers.  Whether or not what I am doing matches with the real
plans that may be going on, I think it might still be valuable to all
involved to look at this exercise as a way of exploring other
options.

While cohousing is incorporated in this project, I am very interested
in putting the lessons of cohousing to work in a business setting.  It
seems to me that consultants, telecommuters, freelancers, and other
individuals who mostly work alone (either at home or in a separate
office) lack some of the amenities and the 'workplace community' that
others have in a more 'traditional' workplace.  But, as companies
continue to downsize and as more and more people become detached from
the traditional workplace, a need for 'workplace community' will
grow.  This, it seems to me, is parallel to the development of the
initial cohousing movement.

Such a business center would be scaled to meet the needs of single
employee businesses, as well as accommodating businesses with a few
employees.  It would have features which a single-employee business
could not afford to maintain on its own (conference rooms and meeting
rooms, for example) as well as providing an environment with
'co-workers' (even if they don't work for the same company), so that
some of the social aspects of a larger office are there for people
who would otherwise be working alone.

Juxtaposing cohousing with this business center makes it possible for
members of the community to have an office at home, but still have a
separation between the home and the office.  The common house can
serve as a cafe which is open to the businesses during the lunch
hours and then would be the community common house in the evening,
and other elements from the business side might also help serve the
residential side of this community.

Chicago seemed like a good location for this project, because of the
higher urban density.  The tendency for cohousing communities to
locate outside of cities (not all of them, I know) seems to be a
negative thing to me.  Locating in a denser area and having numerous
opportunities to integrate with the larger community seems like a
better strategy for forming community both within the project and
in conjunction with the community's neighbors.