Hilliard Tower Apartments

Raymond M. Hilliard Homes were built as affordable public housing between 1963-66 as part of the federal Urban Renewal initiative. It consisted of four poured concrete buildings, designed by Bertrand Goldberg to be supported by its outer shell rather than its core. It was important to Goldberg to design something dignified for low-income residents, who he thought we too often punished for being poor by way of low-quality public housing. There are two crescent shaped family buildings and two cylindrical senior buildings surrounding an inner courtyard with a functioning amphitheater. Today Hilliard Tower Apartments continues to house both affordable and public housing residents. Its historical significance aligns with Goldberg's Marina City and River City complexes, advancing Modernist concrete architecture.