{{Short description|Apartment building in Chicago, Illinois}} {{Use American English|date=February 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Rosenwald Court Apartments | nrhp_type = | image = Rosenwald Apartment Building 2.JPG | caption = A 2012 photograph viewed from 47th Street and Wabash Avenue | location = 47th Street and Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois | coordinates = {{coord|41|48|36|N|87|37|25|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Chicago#Illinois#USA | built = 1929<ref name="nrhp1">{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/NationalRegisterNominationsForChicago/RosenwaldApt.Bldg.NrNom#page/n0/mode/2up |title=Rosenwald Apartment Building - Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments Nomination Form |accessdate=2013-10-30 |author=Gilbert J. Cataldo}}</ref> | architect = | architecture = | added = August 13, 1981 | area = {{convert|4|acre|ha}} | refnum = 81000218<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2009a}}</ref> }}{{Infobox housing project | building name = Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments | image = 240px | caption = A 2012 photograph viewed from 47th Street and Michigan Avenue | location = Bounded by 46th and 47th Street and Michigan and Wabash Avenues<br>Chicago, Illinois,<br>{{USA}} | coordinates = | status = Occupied | constructed = 1929-1930; renovated 2015-2016 | famous residents = Gwendolyn Brooks<br>Nat King Cole<br>Joe Louis<br>Quincy Jones<ref name=7most2007Rosenwald>{{cite web |title=Chicago's Seven Most Threatened Buildings 2007: Rosenwald (Michigan Boulevard Garden) Apartments |url=https://preservationchicago.org/userfiles/file/rosenwald.pdf |publisher=Preservation Chicago}}</ref> }}
'''Rosenwald Court Apartments''' (also known as '''Rosenwald Courts''' or the '''Rosenwald Apartments'''; formerly known as '''Michigan Boulevard Garden 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.
==History== The building was constructed in 1929 by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, then president of Sears, Roebuck & Company. The housing project was modeled after the Dunbar Apartments in Harlem, New York City, built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. in 1926.<ref name="EncycloChiSubHsng">{{cite encyclopedia |author=Devereux Bowly, Jr.|title=Subsidized Housing |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1215.html |date= |encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago |publisher=Chicago Historical Society |accessdate=23 September 2009}}</ref>
In 1981, the Rosenwald Apartment Building received National Register of Historic Places designation.<ref name=7most2007Rosenwald/>
The last residents moved out in 2000, after mismanagement and lack of upkeep made the site uninhabitable.
In 2010, filming for the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon was done on site. In the movie, the apartments doubled as part of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.<ref>{{cite web |author= |title='Transformers' Back in Chicago |url=https://abc7chicago.com/archive/7557120/ |date= 26 July 2010 |work= ABC 7 Local |access-date= 2 August 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100723012715/http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7557120 |archive-date=2010-07-23}}</ref>
In 2015, a complete renovation of the building and courtyard, which had been added to the National Register of Historic Places, began. The intention was to create a mixture of senior citizen apartments and affordable housing for families.<ref name="abc7">{{cite news |url=https://abc7chicago.com/news/historic-rosenwald-renovation-begins-in-bronzeville-/523834/ |title=Rosenwald apartments renovation begins in Bronzeville |date=February 18, 2015 |work=ABC 7 |accessdate=9 April 2015}}</ref><ref>[https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150107/grand-boulevard/work-set-start-on-109-million-rehab-of-rosenwald-apartments/ Work Set to Start on $109 Million Rehab of Rosenwald Apartments] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001152249/http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150107/grand-boulevard/work-set-start-on-109-million-rehab-of-rosenwald-apartments |date=2015-10-01}}, Sam Cholke, DNAInfo, January 7, 2015</ref>
The rebuilding and landscaping was completed in 2016, and the site reopened to the public as Rosenwald Courts.<ref>[https://www.rosenwaldchicago.com/history/ Official timeline of the site's history]</ref>
==See also== *Rosenwald (film)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== <!-- Please remove these if they are used as a reference within the article. --> * {{Official website|https://www.rosenwaldchicago.com/}} * [http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/3734.html Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, 1951], Chicago Encyclopedia * [http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/midwest-region/michigan-boulevard-garden-apartments.html History Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartment and status as of 2003]
{{NRHP in Chicago, Illinois}}
Category:Chicago Landmarks Category:Apartment buildings in Chicago Category:Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago