When the Eisenhower Expressway cut its path from the city to the western suburbs, the considerable displacement was eased in part by a group of city-state housing developments called "Courts." Archer Courts, one of eight such projects, was built in 1951 on the corner of Archer and Princeton streets in Chinatown. The development consisted of two seven-story buildings with seventy-four units each, constructed with concrete frames, masonry infill, and steel windows. A single-loaded corridor, or "gallery," ran along the exterior of each floor, exposed to the weather and lined with 4'-0" high chain-link fencing—a feature typical of public housing projects of the era. To the west of the buildings, an empty lot served as space for parking and recreational activities.

By 1999, Archer Courts had deteriorated significantly, prompting some Chinatown community leaders to call for demolition. Rather than clearing the site and starting with a blank slate—the common approach for aging public housing projects—LBBA initiated designs for a renovation plan that would reuse the existing structures.

In spring 2000, while renovation of Phase I was underway, work began on the design of Archer Courts Phase II, a new townhouse development planned for the vacant land west of the original buildings. The design connects the renovated Phase I structures and the new development through continuous walkways, complementary landscaping, and compatible building systems.

The Archer Courts project as a whole presents a successful case study of an economically, racially, historically, and architecturally mixed development.