High Art
Just off the Magnificent Mile, two collectors transform a space formerly occupied by the French restaurant Ciel Bleu into a duplex penthouse with views from every room—home is where the art is.
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In the foyer, a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat hangs across from a cantilevered staircase. The checkerboard surface is by Carl Andre, and above a console by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann is Migrant Mother, a Depression-era photograph by Dorothea Lange.
Even though the clients are collectors, they did not want a loftlike feeling. "We live alone," she says. "We didn't need huge rooms, but we needed space to hang art, a place that felt comfortable." They wanted to avoid the long, narrow hallways that are typical of vintage apartments. There were also a number of inherent challenges that had to be dealt with-the floors were five inches out of level, and the shape of the building was skewed, quirks that were resolved by the architects and the structural engineer. Among the owners and the design team, the sense of possibility always trumped any temporary setbacks. The property was clearly a prize.
Not long after she bought the space, the client asked the architect John Vinci of Vinci/Hamp if her windows could be larger. During the conversion to condominiums, the developer of the landmark building had hired Vinci to restore the exterior and redesign the lobby. Since the rooftop property was an addition, it was not subject to the historical precedents that applied to the rest of the building. "I didn't do anything magical," Vinci says. "I just made the proportion of glass to masonry larger. It was no big deal."
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But the views are. When the photographer Catherine Opie was working on her 2006 exhibition and book, which captured the city in different seasons, after visiting this apartment she looked no further for a Chicago point of origin. From the start, just off the elevator and into the entryway, the proportions of the space are pleasing-generous yet intimate, sophisticated yet inviting. A bushhammered limestone floor defines the foyer, and wings on either side, where the ceiling heights are lower, comprise the master suite, offices for the couple, and guest rooms. On the right, a cantilevered stairway in rich Brazilian walnut is tucked against a wall, its structure visible through an outer railing of glass. Placing the stairway there, Wheeler explains, made it clear that this was not a single-floor apartment. "It was something that was important to all of us as a design team," he says, "and in this location we could use the double height to bring daylight into what would have been a dark space."
Illuminated in the foyer is an elegant composition of art and objects: the Depression-era portrait Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange hangs above a console by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann; other walls hold a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a photograph by Gilbert and George; on the floor are sculptures by Louise Bourgeois and Sol LeWitt and, in contrasting squares of lead and magnesium, a checkerboard surface by Carl Andre.
"My job was a kind of balancing act," Jones says, "trying to work in and properly place pieces that [the client] had, because she had an amazing collection of art and antiques-some of which she already owned and some of which were purchased for this apartment." Jones also custom designed furniture for the project and recommended fabrics that were both visually appealing and tactile. "I wanted the feeling of natural textures, interesting textures unexpectedly used," she explains, "and a sense of luxury without being ostentatious."
Another kind of surprise is around the corner from the foyer-across from the coat closets that line one wall of an open room are a series of niches custom designed by Mark Spencer and Nina Wong to accommodate work that the client collected when she was a partner in a ceramics and photography gallery, now owned by Martha Schneider. Among the artists represented here are Dame Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, and Gale Golovan Rattner.
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