The City that Works

I mentioned in a recent post that we just submitted permit drawings for a modern addition in Evanston at 2001 Noyes. (It’s our fifth project on Noyes Street in a two block stretch….yes, we are making Noyes up here in Evanston. But I digress...).  The permitting process is at least a bit different in each municipality. In Chicago, where we do a lot of our work, the city has a Self-Certified permit process to help expedite what can be at times, ahem, a challenging process. Self Cert provides architects like us, who have successfully passed the city course, with an expedited path to permitting. Our drawings and application are reviewed for completeness but not for content. Having the Self-Cert credential is something like being deputized by the building department. As long as we have all the drawings they want to see, they don’t need to be reviewed in detail by the phalanx of plan reviewers on city hall’s ninth floor. The Self-Certified Permit program helps us  make Chicago the ‘city that works.’

Thomas AhlemanComment