Carling Hotel

Built in 1927 as a single-room-occupancy (SRO) residential hotel, the Carling was at risk of closing permanently when its longtime owners decided to sell the property in 2015. Affordable housing advocates rallied and with backing from the city’s SRO Preservation Ordinance, the Carling was updated, re-opening in 2018 with 80 private apartments, each with its own bathroom and kitchen.

One key component of the renovation was the transformation of two interior courtyards with contaminated soil. Rather than excavating and hauling the soil out of the building, Omni Infinity Media was installed above a 4” layer of Ozinga’s concrete soil barrier slurry, essentially capping the contaminants in place and allowing green space that also captures stormwater. This remediation saved significant costs and gave residents courtyard views of green lawns instead of eyesores.

The Carling Hotel, along with its sister property just a few blocks away, the Marshall Hotel, was added to the National Registration of Historic Places in 2017. They remain two of the fewer than 65 historic SRO’s in Chicago and continue to offer affordable housing in the Old Town neighborhood. Omni’s courtyard renovations in both buildings helped earn the sites No Further Remediation letters from the Illinois EPA.