Chicago
Site Size: 6,922 square feet
Project Size: 5,900 square feet
Program:
The clients wanted a house with an abundance of natural light, a direct connection to the outdoors, and privacy from the neighboring houses and elementary school.
Location:
Set on the last lot on a block of repetitive single-family homes to the north, the house is separated from a nearby elementary school to the south by a large parking lot and playground.
Solution:
The three-story house, clad in wood and glass on the ground floor and copper and glass above, is separated from its neighbors by a freestanding, board-formed concrete wall, that rises just above eye level for privacy. People enter from the east into a wood-lined first floor that has dining and living spaces, floor-to-ceiling glazing, and large sliding glass doors opening out to a patio to the west.
Upstairs, the more opaque and insular cooper volume contains two floors of bedrooms and deeply recessed glazed balconies with distant views of the Chicago skyline. A rooftop vegetable garden off the second floor overlooks a narrow garden running along the southern perimeter of the house.
Construction methods:
The steel-frame structure is supplemented by glue-laminated wood beam infills. The natural materials on the exterior of the ground level will weather over time: the board-formed concrete walls will spall with age, and the wood siding, initially oiled, will gray. The stone floor, extending from the interior out to the west garden, absorbs the stains of fallen tree leaves. A black-steel and walnut stair leads to the more insulated upper floors, where simple white plaster walls are accented with custom millwork.
Architect:
Wheeler Kearns Architects
343 South Dearborn, Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60604
312 939 7787(p) 312 939 5108(f)
www.wkarch.com
