Celestine Metcalf, a resident of the Chicago Housing Authority’s Albany Terrace Apartments, remembers when she woke up Christmas morning in 2022 to find that her foyer had frozen over.

A pipe had burst from the cold and flooded the entryway, leaving it “covered with ice,” the 67-year-old said, but the building’s senior residents had to walk across it “if you want to get out.”

On Thursday, Metcalf, who has lived in Albany Terrace Apartments for four years and is a resident ambassador, stood in the bright, newly renovated entrance of her building as snow came down hard, pointing out where the flooding had once spread.

“(It’s) like you just got a new toy or you just got something new, and you’re just so excited and you want to show it off to everybody,” she said.

During Chicago’s first snow Thursday morning, Albany Terrace Apartments’ senior residents celebrated the completion of the $93 million renovation of their 50-year-old South Lawndale building at a ribbon-cutting attended by the developers and local housing officials.

By Sylvan Lebrun

November 21, 2024