Jul 19, 2007
New On the Market-Modernist Serenity in Glencoe
List Price: $2,150,000
The Property: Elegant in its spareness, this five-bedroom in Glencoe is a quintessential mid-century modernist home in mint condition. Designed by the great Chicago architects Keck & Keck in 1960 for a member of the Florsheim family, the house has all the Kecks' characteristic simplicity and embrace of its natural setting.
Distinguished from the neighbors by its long, low roof and almost blank front wall, the house stands at the end of a cul de sac with views of a golf course on one side and a forest preserve on another. The Kecks, William and George Fred, took total advantage of the site with floor-to-ceiling glass windows along the rear, private side. That gives every one of the eight rooms a transparent separation between inside and out.
"When you have young children crawling up to those windows, they can see all of nature outside. We get rabbits and birds right outside the windows, and our children would really feel at one with nature then," says seller Nancy Schulson, who with her husband, Michael, has lived in the house for 32 years. Planning to move back into the city to be near grandchildren, they listed it for sale on Monday.
The Schulsons have maintained the house in pristine condition, including its great brick columnar fireplace, the slate and wood floors, the built-in blonde wood dressers in the bedrooms, and the Kecks' trademark louvers next to the windows, designed to bring in cross breezes. (The house doesn't rely on natural ventilation anymore; it's air-conditioned.)
While a buyer will most likely want to update the latter-day all-white kitchen, the rest of the house looks dramatic and stylish, ready for fitting out with 70s pop furniture or anything else that suits the house's hip mood. "This is not a grandma house," says Joe Kunkel, a Baird & Warner agent who specializes in mid-century modern listings and the Schulsons' agent. "It's totally modern everywhere."
Price Points: There are bigger houses than this 3,700-square-footer in the same exclusive price range in Glencoe, but they're more conventionally impressive homes, French Provincials and such. The aficionado of more restrained mid-century modern style will appreciate this house's handsome simplicity and natural splendor.
Listing Agent: Joe Kunkel, Baird & Warner, (312) 371-0986, www.modernproperty.com
Posted at 10:06 AM in On the Market | Permalink
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Reader Comments:
This home is known and loved by lots of kids that grew up in Glencoe. Great memories of riding up and down the circular driveway, playing in the woods...everybody loved going there. This house should be up for auction at Sothebys!