Encuentro Square

David Mason + Associates provided structural engineering services for Encuentro Square, a completed affordable housing redevelopment along the western end of Chicago’s 606 Bloomingdale Trail. The project is the first phase of a three-phase development intended to help curb displacement in the surrounding gentrifying neighborhood. Evergreen Real Estate Group redeveloped the former Magid Glove factory site at 3745 W. Cortland St. into a 200-unit affordable housing campus with a public park. This phase includes 90 mixed-income rental units across two buildings, rising 50 and 70 feet, with residential amenities and community spaces.

The structural system uses post-tensioned concrete slabs to maximize floor-to-floor height, supported by concrete columns and concrete shear walls. Typical elevated floors consist of 8-inch, post-tensioned normal-weight concrete slabs with distributed and banded tendons across the full floor plate. Mild reinforcement is provided at columns and floor openings, with shear stud rails at heavily loaded columns.

Encuentro Square has been selected as a recipient of a 2026 AIA Chicago Award for Design Excellence. The 100% affordable housing development was designed by Canopy, serving as both Master Planner and Building Design Architect.