Chicago permits · public records

Chicago Renovation Permits: Twenty Years, Mapped

Every permit the city issues for renovation and alteration work is a public record. Put twenty years of them together and a pattern shows up: fewer projects, bigger ones, and a map that looks nothing like the city's population.

Source: City of Chicago Building Permits, permit type RENOVATION/ALTERATION. Rebuilt monthly from the city's open data.

Independent — not a city agency, and not affiliated with any contractor or trade group.

A brick two-flat with a curved bay window and a front stoop on Carmen Avenue in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood — A 1903 two-flat on Carmen Avenue in Uptown, the building type behind much of Chicago's alteration work. Photo: Warren LeMay via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.