First in Oak Park, first in Illinois, co-housing Oak Park Commons opens

It’s been over eight years in the making, but Oak Park Commons, Illinois’ first co-housing community, is finally open. New residents have been moving in over the past several months — many of them part of the movement from the very beginning, and others who were drawn to the building for its unique mission. 

In 2018, we covered Susan Stall and her husband Charlie Hoch (https://www.oakpark.com/2018/05/22/co-housing-comes-to-oak-park/.) They founded the Oak Park Multi-Generational Co-Housing Group in the hopes of bringing co-housing to the village they loved. 

Co-housing is an intentional community of private homes, clustered around a shared space. Residents have their own individual spaces and share a common space for community events and gatherings.  

Oak Park resident Jonathan Shack of Altierra Builders, LLC got involved shortly after the exploratory group formed. Not only was he looking for a place to live with his wife, Heather, he quickly added his expertise to the efforts for building and design. 

Alongside architect Foster Dale, general contractor Altierra designed the building, and in 2022, the co-housing group purchased the lot at 839 Madison St. in Oak Park for their new build. They broke ground in 2023 on the 24-unit building. 

The first residents moved into their units in December 2025. Two months later, Oak Parker Sean Taylor and his wife, Sheila Flaherty moved in. The couple first heard about Oak Park Commons when they ran into the co-housing group at the Oak Park Farmers Market, met the people behind the movement and “fell in love.” 

The couple didn’t have to move far. Their old house was just across the street. They’d lived in their Oak Park home on Kenilworth since they got married in 1981. Taylor says of the neighborhood, “It’s still home. It’s always been home.” 

Unlike Taylor and Shack, Nancy Bender’s move to Oak Park Commons involved a long-distance moving van. She was living in Los Angeles when she first heard about Oak Park Commons in 2022. She was looking for a new community, and Oak Park Commons, as well as the village of Oak Park, fit the bill. 

Bender, who moved into her unit in January, says that finally being able to put co-housing concepts into practice has been interesting. She says, “I’ve been on the membership and marketing committees and been in Zoom meetings with people for years. It’s been great to be in person. There’s a balance of joyful, wonderful things, and realizing what the challenges are.”  

For Taylor, who has experience in the business world, the challenges are all part of the beginning of something vibrant and alive. “This reminds me as remarkably like a business start-up. We’re discovering talent and how to use it. It’s fun and exciting. Except here, I like these people consistently across the board versus how I might have felt about people in the business start-up world,” he says. 

Shack shares their excitement. As a part of the general contracting team, he was intimately involved with every detail of the planning process, but he says it’s still fulfilling to see the building finished. “This is my favorite end-product that I’ve been a part of,” he says, adding “I’m my own worst critic and there’s very little that I see here that makes me think I should’ve done it differently.” 

For Shack, the building is already fulfilling its promise through community-wide events, brunches, meetings and encounters in the hallways. “It’s very different from previous condos. You meet people, and it’s more than just conversation. You know them.” 

The building is designed with multiple community spaces to facilitate those connections. A large room can seat upwards of 50 people for a meal, allowing residents to bring friends and families to events. A separate reading room area provides a quiet space, and a children’s room provides play space within the view of parent gathering spaces. There’s also a gym, and a quiet room houses a small library. 

Residents contribute art for the walls, dishes for the kitchen and tools for a shared tool library. 

Taylor says, “A big concept here is shared resources. We’ve got two residents with backgrounds in library sciences. We have a piano that residents and guests can play. We have someone with a background in child development.” 

The building is currently occupied by approximately 20 residents, and there are still six units available – most of them two- or three-bedroom units. Bender adds that they are hoping to attract families to those units to build the diversity of age that most residents are seeking.  

Taylor adds, “Life can be very stressful, and where you can find a supportive environment, that can be very helpful. We are deliberately and intentionally intergenerational.” 

As the co-housing group settles in, they are working together to learn what it takes to run and maintain the state’s first co-housing community. They have learned from other co-housing communities across the country and adopted a platform called Mosaic to facilitate communication. They try to achieve consensus on all decision making. 

Says Taylor, “For a community to thrive, you need energy and input.”  

Valuing everyone’s input and everyone’s life skills and contributions are a big part of the community at Oak Park Commons. Taylor sums it up, “We are a pretty neat little place.” 

For those interested in learning more about Oak Park Commons or getting to know their neighbors, Oak Park Commons is holding a community Grand Opening on Saturday, April 25 from 1 to 4 p.m. at 839 Madison St. in Oak Park. Light refreshments will be served and guests can tour the common spaces and available units, as well as meet mural artist Anna Soltys, who created two murals for the building. Architect Foster Dale will also be on hand to talk about his design.

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