Jul 23, 2009

On the Market

Sleek, But Not Slick, in Bucktown

List Price: $2,199,900
The Property: The exterior of this ten-room home on a Bucktown corner lot is a strict geometrical composition of glass, block, and aluminum, but you only have to get one step inside to feel it loosen up. There, on a coat closet in the foyer, builder Darek Nisi hung a pair of rough-hewn antique doors from India that counteract the cold or sterile feeling of some exactingly contemporary interiors.

The warm feeling continues through most of the house, thanks to an unusual choice of flooring: square panels of rugged-textured rosewood. Their weathered look contrasts with the stacked horizontal windows, a sleek white and teak Scavolini kitchen, and other of-the-moment details.

But this is no case of confused identity. The house is emphatically contemporary, as is evident in the master bedroom, where frosted-glass panels conceal the dressing area, a pair of glass doors slides apart to reveal a lavish bathroom, and the main room’s windows can swing open as doors or tilt a bit to capture the breeze.

The house has four bedrooms, several outdoor spaces (including a very big third-floor deck), and a unifying block wall that wraps the front yard, integrates into the house and garage, and wraps the back. 

“I don’t build them to look old-fashioned. I build contemporary,” Nisi told me as we stood in the living room, 35 feet tall with a wall of windows on one side, upper-story walkways on the other, and a steel-framed fireplace mounted on the wall.

Price Points: Nisi says that initially the house was priced at $3 million, when he was working directly with a buyer who later backed out. Completed in January, it went on the market in February at $2,399,900, but the price has been reduced to $2,199,900.

Listing Agent: Ivona Kutermankiewicz of Koenig & Strey GMAC, 773-360-3088; ivona@ivonahomes.com

 

Posted at 12:42 PM in On the Market | Permalink

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