A New Design For Prospect Avenue Tower

A proposal to develop a new apartment tower behind a historic mansion has new life.

A 25-story apartment building would be constructed behind the Goll Mansion, 1550 N. Prospect Ave., on the Lower East Side. The $69 million project would include 192 high-end apartments overlooking Lake Michigan. It’s a revised version of a 2017 proposal that secured zoning approval only after a series of controversial votes.

The revised building is shorter and further set back from an adjacent condominium tower. 1550, as the proposed tower is known, would rise 277 feet versus the earlier 27-story, 301-foot-tall proposal. The revised tower would also be set back 60 feet from 1522 on the Lake, an increase of nine feet. The residents of 1522 led the opposition to prior proposals for the site.

The changes could be helpful to secure the necessary zoning modification to build the revised proposal. If the new proposal isn’t approved, the site’s owner could still build the earlier proposal as the 2017 zoning change remains in effect. Area Alderman Robert Bauman voted against the last proposal, but a majority of the Common Council backed the project.

“While we are prepared to move forward with the project as approved, we have had the opportunity to look at the project with new partners that have identified minor modifications to the plan that will enhance the project for the City, neighbors and future tenants,” said developer Christopher Houden, Jr. in a statement. “The result is a slender and more attractive building that will be more environmentally sustainable, provide more space between neighboring properties and use higher quality building materials that will better complement the Goll House.”

The developer leads Willow Partners, which purchased the site in April for $2.87 million. Houden, Jr. acquired the site from an investment group affiliated with his father, Chris Houden, who secured the 2017 zoning change.

The revised building also has a new designer, Devon Patterson of Chicago-based architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB). Patterson and SCB have designed two other apartment towers in Milwaukee in recent years, 7Seventy7 and the under-construction 333 N. Water St. The prior proposal was designed by Thomas Miller of Kahler Slater, but Miller passed away unexpectedly in 2019.

Willow would pursue LEED certification, an environmental-friendliness accreditation, for the project. Proposed features include a green roof, “lower-carbon materials” and electric-vehicle parking, all of which earn points on the LEED scoring rubric.

The proposal still calls for picking up the three-story, 10,750-square-foot Goll Mansion and moving it closer to the street in order to create more space on the 0.64-acre site. The historically-protected house was built in 1898 by Ferry & Clas. It’s been used as an office building since 1950 and is currently vacant.

A series of proposals in the past 15 years from New Land Enterprises, Dominion Properties and Houden’s DCH Properties all proposed to keep the house, with Houden’s calling for the house to be moved forward to create a larger development site. None of the proposals secured the necessary financing to move forward.

2022 Renderings

2017 Renderings

Goll House – Interior

Goll House – Exterior