At public meetings across the city people oppose or support proposed developments on the basis of the building’s design or use fitting in with the “character” of the block or neighborhood.
While sometimes these are coded messages about opposing or supporting a certain person who might one day want to live in this building, they are often explicitly the speaker’s opinion about its design elements: height, density (the number of units in the building), age, or materials.
You don’t have to ride down a street to understand its character.
Chicago Cityscape’s new Block Character Analysis summarizes some of those design elements, as well as determines the most common building type, on any given block in Chicago.
Try it now: Search for an address and then choose a PIN, then scroll down to the bottom of the resulting Address Snapshot Property Report. Or try 1437 W Warner Avenue in the Graceland West neighborhood of Chicago.
