An apartment, or flat, is a self-contained housing unit that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are many names for these overall buildings, see below. The housing tenure of apartments also varies considerably, from large-scale public housing, to owner occupancy within what is legally a condominium, to tenants renting from a private landlord.
The Lee Plaza is a vacant 16-story high-rise apartment building located at 2240 West Grand Boulevard, about one mile west of New Center along West Grand Boulevard, an area in Detroit, Michigan. It is a registered historic site by the state of Michigan and was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places on November 5, 1981. Designed by Charles Noble and constructed in 1929, it rises to 16 floors and is an excellent example of Art Deco architecture of the 1920s.
The Cass–Davenport Historic District is a historic district containing four apartment buildings in Detroit, Michigan, roughly bounded by Cass Avenue, Davenport Street, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The Milner Arms Apartments abuts, but is not within, the district.
The Palmer Park Boulevard Apartments District is a collection of three apartment buildings located in Highland Park, Michigan. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The El Tovar Apartments is an apartment building located at 320 East Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, in the East Grand Boulevard Historic District. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
The Kingston Arms Apartments is an apartment building located at 296 East Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, in the East Grand Boulevard Historic District. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. The Kingston Arms, built in 1924, is a representative example of the rise of middle-class apartment buildings in pre-Depression era Detroit.
The Saint Paul Manor Apartments is an apartment building located at 356 East Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, in the East Grand Boulevard Historic District. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The Marshall Field Garden Apartments is a large non-governmental subsidized housing project in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The project occupies two square city blocks and was the largest moderate-income housing development in the U.S. at the time of construction in 1929. Marshall Field Garden Apartments has 628 units within 10 buildings. Polo G lived in the project in his youth.
The River Terrace Apartments is an apartment building located at 7700 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. River Terrace Apartments was one of the first two garden apartment complexes built in Michigan which used loan guarantees from the Federal Housing Administration, the other being Hillcrest Village in East Lansing.
Rosenwald Court Apartments is a large apartment building located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is located at East 47th Street and South Michigan Avenue, just one block east of the former Chicago Housing Authority's Robert Taylor Homes site. In total, the building is made up of 421 apartments, a large landscaped courtyard, and retail space at street level. It was originally built as non-governmental subsidized housing and is considered to be among the earliest mixed-use housing developments.
The Bell Miller Apartments are a historic apartment building located at 835 South Second Street in Springfield, Illinois. The six-flat apartments were built in 1909 by Bell Miller, a local florist branching out into real estate. Architect George H. Helmle designed the three-story Classical Revival building. The building's design features an entrance pavilion supported by Doric columns, verandahs on both sides, and an egg-and-dart frieze and dentillated cornice along the roof line. The interior also featured the style, as stairways with Classical balustrades led to each apartment. The apartments were part of a wave of new apartment buildings constructed in Springfield's Aristocracy Hill neighborhood in the 1910s and 1920s. The new apartments were advertised as "luxury apartments" and featured privacy and amenities designed to attract middle-class professionals, successfully countering the stigma that apartments were low-class housing. The Bell Miller Apartments stood apart even from these other buildings due to its commitment to Classical decoration both inside and out; while other buildings had formally styled exteriors, few featured as lavish of interiors. The building is currently owned by the Conn Hospitality Group, and operates as a bed and breakfast under the name of The Inn at 835.
The Town House is a historic apartment building located at 718 S. 7th Street in Springfield, Illinois. The high-rise building is composed of an 11-story section and a 13-story section joined by a 14-story connector. Built in 1958, the International Style building was designed by Chicago architectural firm Shaw, Metz and Dolio. Springfield's Franklin Life Insurance Company underwrote the building; while it was originally intended to serve as employee housing, it quickly became a desirable residence for the general public as well. The building was the first high-rise luxury apartment complex in Springfield and was likely inspired by the earlier Hickox Apartments, a 1920s complex which set standards for luxury apartments in Springfield. It attempted to bring the more urban lifestyle of large Midwestern cities to comparatively smaller Springfield, and early residents boasted of their access to downtown and reduced housework. Shortly after its construction, however, the national trend of dispersed suburban homes made its way to Springfield; as a result, the Town House was the only luxury high-rise apartment ever built in the city.
The Pilgrim and Puritan Apartment Complex is a historic apartment building located at 9303–9333 East Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. It is a large and intact example of a courtyard style of apartment building complex, not found elsewhere on East Jefferson Avenue. The Pilgrim and Puritan provided housing for Detroit's growing professional and middle-class during a time when the surrounding area was being developed with luxury apartment buildings.
The Building at 257 East Delaware is a historic apartment building located at 257 East Delaware Place in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The building was built in 1917 during a wave of luxury apartment construction on the Near North Side. Architect John Nyden designed the Renaissance Revival building, which was one of Chicago's first luxury apartments designed in the style. Like most skyscrapers of the area, the ten-story building is split into three parts visually; the upper two and lower two floors are faced with terra cotta and are connected by a brick shaft. The building is topped with a cornice and balustrade. Terra cotta lintels and decorations add an Adamesque influence to the building.
Hotel St. Benedict Flats is a historic apartment building located at the northeast corner of Chicago Avenue and Wabash Avenue in the Near North Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1882, the building was one of the "French flat" luxury apartments constructed after the Great Chicago Fire; named for their resemblance to Parisian apartments, these new buildings brought apartment living to Chicago's upper class. The building was built by Loyola University with the intention to use the revenue to pay for healthcare for the poor. Architect James J. Egan, an Irish Catholic better known for his church designs, designed the Victorian Gothic building. The building's decorative features, such as its lintels, art glass windows, and use of pressed metal, were common features of contemporary upper-class homes, while its mansard roofs evoked French architecture. Egan named the building for the property's previous owners, the Order of Saint Benedict; the "Hotel" portion of the name was added to exploit a legal loophole, as the building never served as a hotel. The original doors still remain on the flats.
The Hotel Del Prado is a historic apartment hotel at 5307 S. Hyde Park Boulevard in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1918, it is the oldest of the several apartment hotels built in Hyde Park in the late 1910s and 1920s. Hyde Park was growing in both population and prestige at the time, creating a need for additional housing. Apartment hotels were a fashionable choice, as they combined the amenities and prestige of hotels with the affordability of apartments. The Hotel Del Prado had 198 apartments and included commercial space on its first and second floors. Its Neoclassical design includes Palladian windows on its lower floors, terra cotta trim throughout its exterior, and carved American Indian heads atop terra cotta columns.
The East Park Towers are a historic apartment building at 5236-5252 S. Hyde Park Boulevard in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The building was constructed in 1922-23 during a period of residential growth in Hyde Park. While it had no guest rooms, the apartments offered similar amenities to an apartment hotel, such as housekeeping service. Apartment hotels were popular as part-time housing for wealthy workers, as they combined the amenities of in-home service with the affordability of apartments, and the East Park Towers were one of several such apartments built in Hyde Park at the time. Architect William P. Doerr designed the building in the Georgian Revival style; his design included terra cotta belt courses and quoins and Palladian windows on the first floor.
The Mayfair Apartments are a historic apartment hotel at 1650–1666 E. 56th Street in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. Built in 1926, the building was part of a wave of residential department in Hyde Park, and it was one of several apartment hotels constructed there in the late 1910s and 1920s. Apartment hotels were popular among wealthy workers looking for part-time city housing, as they combined the amenities and prestige of a hotel with the price and location of apartments. The architecture firm Lowenberg & Lowenberg designed the building in the Georgian Revival style. The building's first three stories are clad with limestone and decorated with flat Corinthian columns and balustrades on the second-story windows. The remainder of the building is brick and includes a dentillated cornice at its roof and a second cornice above its eleventh story.
The Poinsettia Apartments are an apartment hotel at 5528 S. Hyde Park Boulevard in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1929, the building was the last of several apartment hotels built in Hyde Park during a period of residential development in the late 1910s and 1920s. Apartment hotels were popular among wealthier workers in the city at the time, as they combined the amenities and prestige of hotels with the affordability of apartments. The Poinsettia Apartments were both the smallest of the Hyde Park apartment hotels and the only building designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Its design features pilasters spanning the height of the building, terra cotta ornamentation, and decorative window surrounds on the first two floors.
The Building at 5510 North Sheridan is a historic apartment building at 5510 N. Sheridan Road in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1927, the seventeen-story building was originally marketed as luxury apartment housing with views of Lake Michigan. Luxury apartments became popular in the 1920s in Chicago, especially on lakefront plots where developers sought to maximize the land's value; to convince affluent Chicagoans to live in a smaller space, new apartments were frequently compared to Parisian apartments, which had become a status symbol in France in the nineteenth century. Architects Quinn & Christiansen designed the French Renaissance Revival building; the French-inspired architecture was used to market the apartments as Parisian. The building's design features a brick exterior with decorative limestone, quoins around the front entrances, and a cornice below a recessed mansard roof.
