Jazz on the Boulevard
In the 1920s, Jazz was in full swing in Chicago and the south side was the place to be to hear it. Local residents lived and breathed the legendary sounds of greats like Count Basie and Duke Ellington at clubs like the Savoy Ballroom.
The beat of the south side could be heard in the Kenwood and Hyde Park neighborhoods. Taking center stage was Drexel Boulevard, one of the most celebrated avenues in America at the time, running through the heart of Kenwood. With a central walk for pedestrians and winding picturesque gardens, the boulevard was designed to encourage reflection upon the beauty and manageability of nature. However, it was just as common to see people making the most of the boulevard's expansive green space by playing sports, walking with the family or napping leisurely."
Today, the development team of The Thrush Companies, Century Place Development Corp. and Granite Development Corp. are bringing Drexel Boulevard back to its grandeur with Jazz On The Boulevard.
The homes offered within Jazz On The Boulevard are in tune with the lifestyles of today's homebuyers with a fusion of housing styles - upscale single-family rowhomes, townhomes, duplexes, flats, and condominiums. Each distinct home style fits the needs of the modern household, which includes families with children, singles, and couples of varying incomes.
Throughout, the development team's commitment to quality architecture resonates, with homes reflecting the Victorian style prominent along Drexel Boulevard and in Kenwood. Designed in masonry, buildings feature artistic elements such as stone detailing, bay windows, private balconies arches, and decorative iron fencing.
Extensively landscaped with shrubs, trees and lush greenery to produce a park-like setting reminiscent of turn-of-the-century Chicago, Jazz On The Boulevard boasts abundant open green space. The development's courtyard is specifically designed to give the community a unique sense of place while providing a space for children to play and for residents to socialize.
With Jazz On The Boulevard, the sounds of life, of culture and of style are once again being heard on the south side, making Drexel Boulevard and Kenwood as celebrated as they were nearly 100 years ago.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
With its diverse housing and unparalleled quality, Jazz On The Boulevard is the most recent illustration of the development team's commitment to the community it serves.
The Thrush Companies has been a pioneer in urban living for more than two decades, building new developments in emerging neighborhoods and successfully creating wonderful new communities for Chicago homeowners.
While Jazz On The Boulevard is Thrush's newest venture in Kenwood, the firm has been the neighborhood's most active developer for nearly a decade. One of the first companies to begin redeveloping the area, Thrush built two homes for the North Kenwood Parade of Homes in 1994. It also built Kenwood's New Homes for North Kenwood/Oakland, which won the Distinguished Building Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1997. Following the success of these endeavors, Thrush increased the scope of its involvement in Kenwood, developing the neighborhood's largest new-home community to date, Shakespeare Townhomes and its companion development , Shakespeare Court.
Granite Development Corp. partnered with Thrush to construct 19 scattered-site single-family and duplex homes in Chicago's Auburn/Gresham neighborhood as part of the New Homes for Chicago initiative. The company was founded in 1995 by two African-American businessmen: Joseph A. Williams, president of Target Group Inc., and Larry Huggins, president of Riteway Construction.
Century Place Development Corp. (CPDC) has been developing and preserving affordable housing since 1988. Founded with the vision that all Chicagoans should have access to decent housing in decent neighborhoods, CPDC responds to a wide variety of housing and community development challenges on a non-profit basis. Over the years, CPDC has developed nearly 800 units of affordable and supportive housing throughout Chicago. The firm's housing initiatives have received awards from and have been recognized by a number of institutions, organizations, and media including the Urban Land Institute - Chicago District Council, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Fannie Mae Foundation, Chicago Realtors Association, Multi-Housing News, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago Sun-Times.