Casa Querétaro

Casa Querétaro is a winning competition proposal for a multiple-unit rental-affordable housing project located at the corner of 17th St and Damen Ave in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. The completed building is certified LEED for Homes Platinum, consists of 45 units and ranges from 2-4 stories with multiple community spaces organized around a common entry courtyard. The project received numerous awards and distinctions including the First Place Richard H. Driehaus Award for Architectural Excellence in Community Design.

In order to maximize accessibility with 100% visitability, the project was planned as a single building. This form, conceived as a structured ribbon organized to embrace a common courtyard, gestures toward the corner and addresses the scale of each street frontage uniquely. On Damen Ave to the east, where there is less pedestrian activity and heavier traffic, the building is further set back, and angles away from the rail line to the north in order to face units back to the neighborhood and also minimize sound impact from passing trains.

On 17th St, the building regularizes itself to run parallel to the street in order to form a continuous streetscape. Particular attention was paid to the building’s massing and materials; planar material changes and building volumes vary in scale from two to four stories to further relate and echo the scale and materials that make up the housing stock on the opposite side. A single loaded corridor provides an acoustical buffer to the vast rail yard while framing views out to the courtyard visually connecting the residents to the exterior.