At first blush, it is not clear that the low-slung glass-and-metal building is a house at all. Marching determinedly over its 216-foot-wide lot on a quiet residential street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, the structure is an enigma—its mass and materials belie its domestic program. Around it, the coveted leafy neighborhood on the city’s North Side just west of Lake Michigan, largely rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, is an eclectic collage of historic row houses, interspersed with courtyard apartment buildings and high-rise condos. Surprisingly, this newcomer fits in by standing out and, while projecting a cool urban demeanor, shelters a welcoming family home within.
The clients’ story is a familiar one. For years, the couple occupied a three-bedroom condominium in the area. As their family grew to include three children, they embarked on a search to find more space. They were not willing to leave the neighborhood. “We have deep roots here,” says the wife, noting that it was important for her children to continue walking to their school and for her husband to jog early every morning in Lincoln Park, for which the area is named. When a local hospital was razed to make way for a condo-townhouse complex, the clients approached the developer. And here’s where the story becomes extraordinary: for their future home, they proposed purchasing eight adjacent townhouse lots next to a historic chapel (which remained) and surrounded by residential towers.
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