Windy City Rehab has connected with viewers like few other HGTV shows have. The series
follows interior designer Alison Victoria as she renovates rundown homes throughout
her native Chicago. Viewers may think they know everything there is to know about the
show, but there's plenty to learn.
For Alison Victoria, Windy City Rehab is more than just a home-improvement show. It's the
fulfillment of her childhood dream to beautify the streets of Chicago, one historic home
at a time.
"Growing up, my dad used to take us driving around the city, and I would see all these
houses, and I just would, like, dream of living in one of them one day."
But according to her, getting the opportunity to be the one who rehabs so many of these
homes is an even bigger dream come true. It's something in which the lifelong Chicagoan
takes immense pride.
"I want to make sure that this city is absolutely just sprinkled with beautiful homes that it
really was once known for."
WIndy City Rehab is an outgrowth of Alison Victoria's love of Chi-Town heritage houses,
and, when she was able to buy one herself, she made it her mission to restore the property
to its former glory.
Speaking in a Q&A with Roku, Victoria spoke about her very first reno.
"I lived in an old historic home in Wicker Park that was so rundown and nobody wanted
to touch it, and I did. And I got it, and I fixed it. And instead of people running
by, they would stop and take photos of this house. And I knew that I wanted to keep doing
that on every single street in Chicago."
As part of her mission to turn a passion for design into an actual career, Alison left
Chicago after high school and attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas. After graduating,
she landed a job at Vegas-based design firm Christopher Homes, becoming the youngest designer
the company had ever hired to that point.
Just two years later, she struck out on her own to launch her own design firm, Alison
Victoria Interiors. As she put it in an interview with Vegas magazine,
"The Las Vegas home-building industry was at its peak. The timing couldn't have been
more perfect."
Whether she's in Las Vegas or the Windy City, her design ethos has been influenced by her
beloved hometown. She told Vegas,
"I guess I would say that I have a more traditional style when it comes to interior design. Coming
from Chicago, I grew up with all that history, and that's what I like to reflect in my work."
Oddly enough, it was the financial crisis of 2007 that spurred Alison Victoria's journey
to HGTV. As she recalled in an interview with House Beautiful, just as her design business
was taking off, the economy crashed. She had accepted a job offer in Las Vegas and worked
there for five years before she happened to come into contact with a Los Angeles-based
production company.
The company was seeking designers for a new home-improvement show and hired her as a ghost
designer for the show House Crashers on the DIY Network. If you're drawing a blank on
what a "ghost designer" even is, don't worry, you're not alone. Victoria explained to House
Beautiful,
"I didn't know what that meant. What that meant was I do all the work, I get zero credit,
and I'm not on television."
The job wasn't glamorous, but Victoria saw the possibilities it presented. She said at
the 2015 AOL BUILD Series,
"They were like, 'You get to design the episode, but we'll never show you on TV, and your logo
will be shown for one split-second.' I was like, 'Done, I'll take it.'"
"Because everything's a stepping stone, so I knew that this was a real opportunity, so
when I had that opportunity I, like, took it and ran with it."
While working behind the scenes on House Crashers, Alison Victoria had an epiphany. As she recalled
in an interview with House Beautiful,
"I was like, 'Wait, they're all dudes. There should be a woman in this space.' Now that
I had a contact, I was like, 'I'm going to pitch myself as the first female crasher and
do kitchens,' and that was it."
Producers loved her pitch, hiring her to star in Kitchen Crashers, which ran for nine successful
seasons and even led to her joining another series, the Travel Channel's Hotel Impossible.
From the outside, Victoria's leap from behind-the-scenes designer to on-air host may seem like it was
effortless, but first she had to overcome her fear of giving up the security of a steady
paycheck in order to pursue a risky opportunity.
As she said in an interview with A Drink With,
"You have to be scared. If you're not scared, then what is it worth? I was so scared to
quit my job. I was 22, making a lot of money but I was [not happy]."
While working on Kitchen Crashers, Alison Victoria met contractor and fellow Chicago
native Donovan Eckhardt. When Eckhardt appeared on three episodes of the show, the two realized
they had many mutual friends, leading them to strike up a friendship of their own.
As Eckhardt recalled to Sophisticated Living,
"One night, we went to a Blackhawks game and started talking about renovating old buildings.
And we decided there and then to do it. I still remember us laughing and saying, 'Let's
buy a building!'"
The pair put together a sizzle reel for HGTV, pitching a show in which they would buy decrepit
Chicago properties to renovate and then sell. HGTV loved the concept, and, shortly after,
Victoria and Eckhardt were shooting the new series.
Victoria told Sophisticated Living of their goal for the show, saying,
"We're building homes that look like they could have been there for the last hundred
years. We don't leave one single detail unturned. We're meticulous in the way we build. I'm
meticulous in the way I design."
Buying rundown heritage houses to renovate and then flip offers the potential for big
rewards, but also carries with it some serious risks. Sometimes those risks don't pay off.
Alison Victoria admitted in an interview with Parade,
"Not all of the rehabs make money. Some of them, I actually have to pay our investor
back at the end."
Landing a big payday at the completion of a renovation is always preferred, but she
believes the projects she undertakes on Windy City Rehab are about more than just money.
She told Parade the best part of the job is about making homes that people can be proud
to grow up in, doing work she hopes others can be inspired by, just like she was when
she was a young girl.
"How old do you think you were when you designed your first space?"
"Eleven. It was my best friend's room. So we pulled all the carpet up, got to the hardwood,
sanded 'em down, painted...Yeah. Yeah!"
Windy City Rehab turned out to be a hit for HGTV, becoming one of the network's highest-rated
freshman series. Steadily climbing viewer numbers demonstrated that people were coming
back to the show week after week, and they were apparently telling their friends to tune
in too.
Deadline pointed out that Windy City Rehab was HGTV's No. 1 series overall in the 25
to 34 age demographic, in addition to landing in the top 10 of all cable series among women
25 to 54. Within a month of its January 2019 premiere, the show attracted more than 9.3
million viewers, prompting HGTV to renew the show for a second season.
Viewers of Windy City Rehab don't always see the whole story. Speaking with Architectural
Digest, Chicago designers Kristin Petro and Michael del Piero explained how the series
only shows viewers a fraction of what actually occurs.
"We show you everything, even the stuff that, you know, isn't fun or profitable. It's just
raw."
Del Piero had mixed feelings, saying,
"I love that the design shows are happening, because it has allowed us to access a clientele
that maybe wouldn't have considered using an interior designer. The negative side is
that the TV crews don't show what goes into all of this...I don't think TV depicts all
the decisions that pop up and require us to change course."
"People don't even realize when they're trying to flip a place that this is what could happen."
It's understandable why a TV show would gloss over mundane elements and focus on a reno's
more dramatic aspects, but Petro cautioned viewers that what they're seeing is more entertainment
than reality. She explained,
"I often tell people that if they were to walk into our office at any given time, they
would just see people typing quietly at their computers for the majority of their day. It
would be a very boring show if someone really showed what we did."
There's plenty of drama in each episode of Windy City Rehab, but there's even more drama
behind the scenes.
Residents living near one of the series' homes were not happy about having a home-improvement
series filmed on their street in March 2019. They complained about early morning noise,
alleging that work crews were starting well before they were legally allowed to. Said
one neighbor,
"You can't start until 8 a.m. They start sooner and then they all pretend they don't know.
They were doing brickwork with the saws and doing all kinds of things before 8 a.m. and
the dust was going everywhere. They were clearly on a very aggressive timetable."
Eckhardt responded to the complaints, saying,
"We're trying our absolute best to be the best neighbors we can. I understand it's frustrating
to live next to construction. But at the end of the day I think we're doing really good
work. I'm a neighbor. I live in Bucktown, and I'm proud to drive by every single home
we've done."
In July 2019, one of Windy City Rehab's projects received multiple citations for violating
city ordinances, including some regarding the time constraints for when construction
work is supposed to begin and end each day. As the Chicago Sun-Times reported, that particular
project was hit with two stop-work orders after officials determined there had been
multiple violations, while the show was also cited for construction jobs that were being
undertaken without first acquiring the necessary building permits.
"Things were moving, but now we're stopped. So, we're just losing time."
According to the newspaper, Chicago Department of Buildings spokesman Gregg Cunningham said
officials from his department would be meeting with builder Donovan Eckhardt to make the
concerns heard, and ensure that the city's standards are being met. And that might include
removing Eckhardt and his construction crews from the show in its second season.
"Can everyone flip a house? No. This is not stuff that anybody can do."
In January 2020, House Beautiful reported that the lawsuits had prompted Victoria to
cut ties with Eckhardt, and set up shop with a new team of general contractors.
Cunningham also stated that Victoria had taken steps to comply with the department's concerns.
He told the Chicago Sun-Times,
"She is making an effort to clean her permit applications up. We appreciate the efforts
to come into compliance."
With Donovan Eckhardt's contractor permit suspended and new contractors brought in to
complete home renovations for the second season of Windy City Rehab, it seems clear that his
involvement with the series is over.
For now, Victoria insists a second season is in the works, but so far, it's not exactly
off to a smooth or prompt start.
"Production of the second season has been delayed because of the legal issues."
Victoria responded to the controversy in an Instagram post in July 2019, insisting that
the issues flagged by the department were being addressed. She wrote,
"I want you to hear it from me directly that I am working closely with the City of Chicago
to repair and amend any and all permits with our new general contractors. The building
department says they are pleased with our efforts and we will continue to work closely
together to move in the right direction."
"That is why you don't get in this game just to try to make a quick dime, because you can
end up losing everything."
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