North Logan Square

Overview

North Logan Square is a highly well-connected neighborhood whose built form largely corresponds to the connectivity standards laid out in the Lexicon of New Urbanism and the Victoria Transport Policy Institute. The reason for this correspondence is that Logan Square overall is a historically dense area whose built form has not changed dramatically since the early 20th century, when most of the buildings were constructed. Per the city analysis done in 1958 in the City of Chicago Study of the Logan Square Community Area, “over 90% of the housing was built before 1930… many buildings were built 60 or more years ago” (City of Chicago, 4) was more or less developed by the 1930s (a time when dense, walkable urbanism was still the standard for American city design). They concluded that only through demolition could new buildings be constructed (City of Chicago, 4). Even while acknowledging North Logan Square’s many surface parking lots (quite a few abutting suburban-style strip malls or warehouse-esque stores), North Logan Square is still arguably a positive example of urbanist and, in the case of its many new developments on Milwaukee Avenue, New Urbanist design standards.

Network Types

Almost all of North Logan Square follows the Savannah block patterns of a (mostly) grid street pattern with relatively standard block lengths and depths (more on blocks in the Block Types section). Between North Sacramento and Kedzie, the neighborhood shifts to the Mariemont pattern around the northwest-angled North Milwaukee Avenue (with many streets following the diagonal/diagonal until it realigns to the north-south grid.

Block Types

The vast majority of North Logan Square consists of generally uniform elongated blocks. Between North Kimball and Pulaski, and between Sacramento and Rockwell, the built form of the neighborhood is north-south elongated blocks, mainly for residential buildings, flanked on North Fullerton and Diversey by east-west elongated blocks (separated from the aforementioned blocks by alleys) facing both avenues. This uniformity is rarely broken; a square block on Diversey taken up by Kosciuszko Park; an irregular, triangular block where Tract 2203 stretches just north of I-90 and where Sacramento and Milwaukee meet; an L-shaped block including Unity park facing Kimball.

Block types (see color coding) for the blocks between Pulaski to the west and Kimball and Spaulding to the East. As seen here, this part of North Logan Square follows the Savannah pattern of organization. Note: in real life, the blocks are largely the same size and are aligned with each other; however, the grid they are laid out on is not perfectly linear, resulting in a less symmetric map.

The Target superblock that spans Milwaukee from Sacramento to Logan Boulevard at the Logan Square traffic circle. It is one of the few examples of superblocks in Logan Square.

The blocks situated between Pulaski and the Milwaukee District North Metra railway, and around the northwest-aligned Milwaukee Avenue (between Kimball and Sacramento) demonstrate far more variety. The blocks immediately surrounding Milwaukee for the most part are irregular blocks, rhombus, triangular, and other strange shapes molded by Milwaukee, by entirely diagonal side streets, and by diagonal streets that realign mid-block with Chicago’s north-south grid format. There are a few, elongated blocks in this area, all located on Logan Boulevard, Kedzie, or Fullerton.

Block types (see color coding) for the blocks between the Milwaukee District North Metra line to the west and Pulaski to the east.

Interestingly, there are three structures that, while oddly shaped, are more distinctive in that they are superblocks/superblock-esque. One (the only true superblock) stretches from North Linden to Logan Boulevard, a singular building with a block-long Target with a single entrance at North Linden (the second block, separated by a short road to a parking garage, has multiple storefronts). Located just north of Logan Square (the square) is a block-long affordable housing complex located behind some commercial buildings.

The affordable housing"superblock"-style complex on North Emmett and the commercial buildings located next to it on Milwaukee.

Block types (see color coding) for the blocks between California to the west and Rockwell to the east. There is a single block in North Logan Square separated from the rest of the neighborhood by I-90.

Close to Diversey is a new, Miller Chicago-owned structure with a facade designed to look like multiple, close-together structures even as the first-floor storefronts’ size reveal the illusion. Although it is not a true superblock, I was struck by the size of the building, which is accentuated by its decision to essentially “disguise” it through its appearance.

The Miller Chicago buildings with its facade differentiation attempt.

Block types between Kimball to the west and North Fairfield and North Washtenaw to the east. As described, the blocks around Milwaukee are highly irregular in shape, while the network type for these blocks surrounding the northwest-facing road is Mariemont. However, North Logan square's network type returns to Savannah south of West Wrightwood and east of Kedzie the road exiting Logan Square to the north) and Francisco, the road just east of the Milwaukee/Fullerton intersection. The two gradient blocks are the ones with the two superblock-esque structures.

Intersection facing north at Schubert and Central Park. Elongated blocks (like the short sides of two seen in the photo) are by far the most ubiquitous block type in North Logan Square

Thoroughfare Types

Almost every street in North Logan Square is just that – a low-traffic neighborhood street. North Logan Square has two boulevards – Logan Boulevard, which goes east from Logan Square and terminates at the Chicago River, and West Wrightwood, a two-lane road that comes into Logan Square from the west and terminates at Logan Square before reappearing east of the Chicago River, making it technically a boulevard in North Logan Square. North Logan Square also has three high traffic avenues – Fullerton, Diversey, and Milwaukee. Although Milwaukee is very busy, it is a two-lane road, as is Diversey. Fullerton is wider at four lanes, making it a real line of division between North Logan Square and South Logan Square and Palmer Square. Although Logan and Kedzie Boulevard (the latter which should be considered an avenue by New Urbanist standards) are also four lanes, they are separated from the sidewalks and buildings by the Chicago Boulevard system that connects to Logan Square (the square) from the south and the east, which gives them a very different feel than Fullerton, where pedestrians are right next to the four lanes.

Milwaukee Avenue facing south from just north of Logan Square (the Square itself).

Analysis: Connectivity Standards

I focus my connectivity analysis on Milwaukee as the high-traffic, most-mixed use corridor completely contained within my neighborhood. Milwaukee Avenue is roughly 40 feet wide, above the 24-36 ft recommended range for pavement (as prescribed by New Urbanist-affiliated planning groups like the Victoria Transport Policy Institute. However, the actual driving space is 18 feet, where 12 feet (six feet on either side) is used for street parking, and eight feet (four on either side) is reserved for bike lanes.

Length of Milwaukee Avenue just north of the Milwaukee-Fullerton intersection.

The largest crosswalks in North Logan Square are located at the roundabout around Logan Square, a roundabout that may be changed in the near future to increase pedestrian space. Right now, the three longest crosswalks on Milwaukee (and in North Logan) are the southwest and southeast diagonal crosswalks on Logan Boulevard and Milwaukee (to get to the square) at roughly 130 and 95 feet each, as well as the northeast crosswalk from the northeast corner of the square to the block on Kimball's east side at around 100 feet long. Despite their length, they remain below the New Urbanist-recommended maximum of 350 feet for pedestrian connections.

The crosswalk between Logan Square and the southwest block facing Milwaukee. This crosswalk is longer than the one between Logan Square and the southeast block facing Milwaukee because the southwest block is located further back from the square.

There are three intersections on Milwaukee – Milwaukee and Sacramento, Milwaukee and the southern curve of the Logan Square roundabout, and Milwaukee and the northern curve of the roundabout. The largest of these is the Milwaukee/Sacramento intersection, which has a diagonal width of about 135 feet at its widest point. The intersections around Logan Square, while made smaller than they would be due to the presence of pedestrian islands in the street, are still large. The length at the longest point of the intersection between the southern curve of the Logan Square roundabout and Milwaukee is the aforementioned southeast crosswalks (which are different lengths because the eastern block on Milwaukee terminates closer to Logan Square than the western block), which has a diagonal length between the square and the western block of around just over 130 feet – well smaller than any of the New Urbanist intersection width standards (smallest: 300-400 ft) despite being a major street.

The Milwaukee-Sacramento intersection, featuring the entrance to Target.

In terms of block size on Milwaukee, the largest block – the triangular block between Logan Square southeast of Logan Square – is just over seven acres. Looking at the whole neighborhood, the general lengths for blocks in North Logan Square go from around one acre to over three acres for blocks, and around one to five acres for some of the larger irregular blocks surrounding Milwaukee. The blocks near the Healy Metra station (Milwaukee District North) consist of large-footprint stores and warehouses, making them an anomaly compared to the rest of the neighborhood (largest plot: just over 12 acres). In short, the vast majority of blocks are far smaller than the recommended New Urbanist/Victoria Transport Policy Institute block size range of 5-12 acres.

With regards to other connectivity standards, I identified only one true cul-de-sac, right where a street terminates due to I-90. There were a couple of streets that are not fully through streets (these and the true cul-de-sac are identified within irregular blocks in my block type diagram), but there are very few of them.

The largest block on Milwaukee Avenue.

The largest block in North Logan Square

A typical elongated block in North Logan Square

Conclusion

North Logan Square has shifted very little in its physical design since the mid-20th century, with not an over (with the Target apartment complex’s parking garage standing as a notable exception). It conforms to and even exceeds to New Urbanist/Victoria Transport Policy Institute design standards for connectivity and urban form, and I see it as a highly connected neighborhood in terms of thoroughfare, network, block, and specific design patterns.

Addendum: Transit and Connectivity on Fullerton Avenue

Although Logan Square is connected by the Blue Line to O’Hare and the Loop (and of course, everything in between, including close-proximity stops on Belmont and down Milwaukee Avenue), Logan Square lacks east-west rapid transit connection on Fullerton Avenue. I have biked from the Red/Brown/Purple Line Fullerton Stop in Lincoln Park to Logan Square and back twice now because it is more convenient for me to take the Red Line up to Fullerton and bike west when I am in Streeterville rather than go back south across the Chicago River to take the Blue Line. While riding, I have observed heavy car traffic on the four lane road. Although Fullerton already has lots of stores and homes on both sides of its street (in North Logan Square, South Logan Square, and for much of the way to the Fullerton Red/Brown/Purple station, save for exceptions like the Riverpoint strip mall), I wonder what the connectivity of the broader area would be if an east-west rapid transit (rail or bus rapid transit) line was established along Fullerton.