All Aboard

Helmut Jahn’s new building is also known as “the train” because its sleek, aerodynamic styling makes it look like a railcar passing through the neighborhood.

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On the roof, 18-inch-high prairie grasses alternate with gravel paths.

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Resident Dorothy Barry, a former public school teacher, gazes out the ground-floor windows at a city where she was once temporarily without a home.

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The spacious corridors of the Schiff Residences are clean, well-maintained, and warmly colored—-a convincing hybrid of social housing and home.

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A horizon-line of rooftop wind turbines turns the skies of the Windy City into an omnipresent source of electrical power. Installed by the Chicago-based firm Aerotecture International, the turbines give the building both a steady supply of power and a distinct appearance, visible from several blocks away.

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Ernest Gladney reads alone at a worktable in his bedroom. Tall houseplants give Gladney a shade of privacy against the passing cars on Clybourn Avenue.

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Resident Ernest Gladney speaks with a friend in the Schiff’s lobby area. Site of many a domino match, the tastefully decorated room helps to personalize the Schiff.

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The building’s stark but well-windowed exterior is clad with ridged sheets of stainless steel. Dorothy Barry steps outside for a breath of fresh air.

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