In a city known for its architecture, Avondale is a Chicago neighborhood that is justly overlooked. Avondale’s architecture is arbitrary: additions of vinyl siding have popped up out of the classic brick workers cottages that dot the streets. These spontaneous shapes add great character but little cohesive aesthetic to the neighborhood. But there is an apartment building among these wonky cottages that stands firm and sturdy, like a molar rooted to the end of a line of crooked teeth. This building is called The Ideal.
Located at 2900 N Troy Street, The Ideal is a regular brick building of standard stature, three and a half stories stretching the full lot. The building is far from distinctive, asymmetrical with little ornamentation. But there is something that drew me in: a stone arch stretches around each of the doors, the soft fold of a capital A. Four flower motifs adorn each leg of the arch, and at the top in all uppercase letters reads “THE IDEAL.”
The trend of naming apartment buildings started in the 1880s as a means to differentiate them from tenements. A name created the image of a high-class experience, giving its residents a sense of pride. It is more typical to find a building named for a nearby landmark or the developer, less often descriptions of a building itself.
In trying to research more about The Ideal, I found so little to discover. It is an unremarkable building in an incidental location. A real estate broker advertises: “This ideal Avondale condo has everything your buyers are looking for!” Nothing more, nothing less. Exactly what a resident needs it to be.
Perhaps there is something ideal about living in such a regular building, a sentiment I prescribe to the Midwest. In Chicago, we don’t need things to be the best or the coolest; we want what works; we want a functional building on a cozy neighborhood street. We want the cottages to be retrofitted to hold our growing family. We want the building to be a vessel for life, not an aristocratic space designed to wow us every day. Pure functionality. That’s The Ideal.
