Justice
A Rebrand Goes Wrong in a Gentrifying Chicago Neighborhood
First known as “The Gentry,” a new project has residents in the mostly Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago’s Lower West Side feeling anxious.
In hindsight, maybe “The Gentry Building” wasn’t such a sensitive way to rebrand an old paint factory on Chicago’s Lower West Side.
The five-story red brick building sits in Pilsen, a neighborhood being squeezed by the pressures of redevelopment and changing demographics. When the project’s name was unveiled, it tapped into a wave of anxiety among locals who saw it as an all-too-appropriate moniker for what it would bring to the area beyond street-level retail and four floors of “creative” office space. Those details aren’t changing, but after the uproar over its name, it’ll now have a title stripped of all connotation: 917 W. 18th Street.