The client had visited a house in Lake Forest. Standing at the front door, he was able to peer through the house at a lush garden in back. Why not make that a feature of his house in Chicago? Sight lines are free and lush vegetation is inexpensive. (Note the red arrow on the 1st floor plan above.) With this strategy in mind we set out to make the most of this 100 year old balloon frame. (See "before shot" below middle; note that many of the vertical elements are dangerously out of plumb.)
The project has been divided into two phases: the front porch, west elevation, and part of the south elevation were completed fall 2002 and the rear extension and second floor gut rehab are to be completed in 2003. The first phase began with the demolition of the existing porch and the resurrection of four masonry piers with alternating courses of beautiful brick from Endicott and new brick that matched the old. (The matching brick was leftover from a Cook County Jail addition.) The clients wished that the assembled brick "not resemble a forbidding wall." We concurred and showed them renderings of several ideas that employed masonry in a dynamic fashion. They were intrigued. While today brick in Chicago is used mostly like wallpaper, we proposed a running bond course sandwiching a course whose bricks run at a 45 degree angle (click on the photo above for an enlargement). This creates shadow and pattern where there was only mass and flatness before. It even lines up with the cedar trellis work to create a textured band that dresses the front of the house.
Compliments have come from some unusual places: A Chicago Streets and Sanitation truck stopped in front of the house, the driver rolled down his window and said," I ain't never seen brick work like that before! Dat's cool!" (We didn't know they cared?) We would like to find clients who love masonry as much as we do and who would like to see its potential realized. It's ironic that today in Chicago, a city brimming with 100-year-old masterpieces of masonry construction, very little as of late has been done to make brickwork beautiful. New masonry is either flat like wallpaper or it is that cheap, water-absorbing, rough-faced concrete block, a mold and mildew disaster in the making. Caveat Emptor.
The second phase consists of adding about a dozen feet onto the end of the house and making three comfortably-sized upstairs bedrooms. The den and kitchen are joined to together (see plan above) and the dining expanded so that it can comfortably seat 20 people on special occasions. A large rear deck rounds out the experience.(See below right) There is a large, new kitchen and a custom-designed break front that reflects the new porch. The interiors information will be available on a page of its own shortly or contact us and we'd be happy to show it to you.
The colors were another challenge. Color is wonderful. They also can become a trap. It is easy to seduced by too many colors. The house was originally a light green and the client wanted change. He showed us some houses in the neighborhood he liked. We suggested seeing what we considered to be the best four or five painted houses in the city. He enthusiatically jumped on board and we went with a 3 color scheme of wineberry clad windows, greenish gray frames and a creme siding. The renderings show it approximately.
