How does a residential building stand out in the crowded downtown market? For Chicago-based Magellan Property Management, which operates four apartment buildings in the city, the answer is to get inventive with amenities. It launched an artist-in-residence program, inviting up-and-coming creatives to live for free in a building for at least a year. (Monthly rents typically run $1,700 to upward of $6,000.) In exchange, they share their talents with neighbors. A rundown of the current slate:

Tyler Houston

Chef

Building:The Gallery on Wells
Residency:April 2018 to April 2019
The sous chef at Pacific Standard Time, a California-style restaurant in River North that opened in late April, hosts monthly cooking demos (on the docket is one on how seasonal fruit can be used in everything from a meat marinade to a cocktail) and welcomes residents for free tastings at the restaurant.

Jeremy Gentry

Musician

Building:Exhibit on Superior
Residency:May 2017 to May 2019
The recent Columbia College grad was the first fellowship recipient after Exhibit on Superior residents voted for him, American Idol–style. He’s since been belting out acoustic pop covers and original songs in the lobby and offering gratis guitar lessons.

Luis Ramirez

Muralist and graffiti artist

Building:The Gallery on Wells
Residency:February 2018 to February 2019
Ramirez, a.k.a. Asend One, has received commissions from Nike, Pandora, and Verizon. For the apartment building, he has put up a punchy abstract mural in the workout center and hosted pastel and charcoal drawing classes.

Phillip-Michael Scales

Musician

Building:Aqua
Residency:September 2017 to September 2018
If legendary blues artist B.B. King is your uncle, you better hope you were blessed with those genes. Scales was—and Aqua residents can catch him performing in the lobby or around the neighborhood at the Radisson Blu and the Drunken Bean.