Mark Giangreco, the sports director and lead sports anchor at WLS-TV ABC 7, has bought a two-bedroom condo on a high floor at One Museum Park, the pair of new condo towers that overlook the south end of Grant Park." /> Mark Giangreco, the sports director and lead sports anchor at WLS-TV ABC 7, has bought a two-bedroom condo on a high floor at One Museum Park, the pair of new condo towers that overlook the south end of Grant Park." /> Mark Giangreco, the sports director and lead sports anchor at WLS-TV ABC 7, has bought a two-bedroom condo on a high floor at One Museum Park, the pair of new condo towers that overlook the south end of Grant Park." />

John Van Bergen’s Wright Stuff on the South Shore

List Price: $499,000
The Property: Built in 1916 when the surrounding neighborhood was a stylish enclave centered on the nearby South Shore Country Club, this Prairie-style house was the work of the architect John Van Bergen, whose buildings are numerous in Oak Park, River Forest, and Highland Park. This is Van Bergen’s only work in Chicago, according to Lee Bey, formerly the architecture critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and now a blogger at…

New Life for Dr. King’s Lawndale Dream

In Lawndale, at the site of the Chicago apartment where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  lived with his family in 1966, work has begun on the Dr. King Legacy Apartments, a $17-million complex that, when finished, will have 45 units of affordable rental housing, retail space, and a mini-museum dedicated to the efforts of King and others to provide equal access to housing in Chicago.

A Mid-Priced Mid-Century Modern

List Price: $1.29 million
Sale Price: $950,000
The Property: Although its street face is mostly an off-putting wall of brick, the other three sides and the interior of this Glencoe home demonstrate the mid-century modernist concept that a house should contain simple, open spaces with a nearly transparent connection to the outdoors.

Lake Forest Foreclosure Is a Sign of the Times

List Price: $2,695,000
Sale Price: $2,037,750
The Property: This 12-room mansion on two and a half acres in Lake Forest sold at foreclosure on December 22nd. Built in 1996 on a cul-de-sac of seven homes carved out of an old Green Bay Road estate, the house mimics English country styles with its tall brick peaks and ornamented limestone bay. Photos that accompanied the listing show…

Easier Loans for Veterans, First-time Buyers

It’s been a quandary most of the year: real-estate prices are tantalizing now, but getting a mortgage is rough. The Illinois Housing Development Authority (IHDA) has a little-known program that makes borrowing easier for state residents; it offers interest rates lower than the prevailing norm for conventional loans, accepts borrowers with credit scores lower than most big lenders now require…

Wild and Woodsy—Glenview

List Price: $1.525 million
The Property: From its jaunty Z-shaped façade to its show-stopping red and chrome kitchen, this exuberant four-bedroom Glenview house doesn’t hold back. It even comes with a built-in exclamation point—made of wood inlay and situated on the master bedroom floor.