A spectacular floor-to-ceiling view of Lake Michigan that stretches from one end of the east side of the house to the other, makes it seem permanently focused, almost as if through longitudinal binoculars, on an immense stretch of ever-changing water and sky.
”I walked in the front door and nearly dropped dead at the view,” says the lady of the house, which is international, or minimalist, in
architectural style and on a bluff above Lake Michigan. ”It didn`t take me long to walk around this house and figure I loved it,” adds the owner, who wishes to remain anonymous.
”Something else about the house helped sell it besides the view. It will adapt itself to our needs till we drop dead. It has all the room that any human should possibly want in life.”
What she didn`t love, however, was an outdated decor.
When she moved in, the house was in typical `60s style, with deep shag carpeting throughout, even in the kitchen.
Her furniture was American traditional in conventional arrangements.
For example, in the living room, which has the largest view, there was a formal arrangement of a sofa opposite the window, with a low table in front and two chairs on either side. Two other sofas were directly in front of the windows facing each other over a low coffee table.
Aware changes were in order, the homeowner interviewed a number of designers.
”I didn`t know anything about decorating. I knew a few of the big names in this city,” she says.
”Greg (Stratman) came in as a dark horse. But the talent there was so extraordinary, there was no question about who I would pick.”
Though new to the designer game, life had made her aware of what she needed in a working relationship with a house.
”This is our third house, and I didn`t have trouble telling him what I wanted. While I didn`t know the precise look I wanted, I did know how we were going to use the house,” she says.
”When I started with Greg, my first child was less than 2. So I knew that whatever we did had to be easily cleaned and durable. I knew I wanted sleek, clean, contemporary and that was it.
”Greg was a master at interpreting. He gave me more than I wanted out of this house. I thought he was going to give me a nice environment for my family. What he gave me was a love affair with my house. I`m quite passionate about living here.
”I`m never tired of this house. At night when we`re settled in the den, watching television, I don`t mind getting up to get the Cokes, because it means I get to walk through the house!”
A small structural change Stratman suggested immediately helped the house realize its full esthetic potential. He took out a small section of wall between the breakfast room and living room.
”Greg opened up this wall and changed the whole flow of the house,” the owner says. ”It made all the difference. Now it is a clear shot into the living room.
”The breakfast room originally was the least attractive room in the house. This (change) alone was worth the price of admission.
”Before, we would sit in the morning having coffee here, and to think you couldn`t look at the lake! Not being able to see what is going on in the rest of the house was a detraction.”
There was a practical bonus as well.
”Before, you couldn`t hear what was going on in the living room,” says the owner. ”From a parental standpoint, it now means my children can be seen and heard.”
A consummate cook, she spends a lot of time in the kitchen, and now, from its door she can glance out and see straight through the breakfast room into the living room, where the children might play.
Asked how he had come to such an immediate decision, one ignored by other designers who had seen the house, Stratman says, ”I just noticed the way they were living.
”They lived right here. It was a simple matter to knock out this wall. The idea just came from having a fresh outlook. You don`t have to have a separate breakfast room. It could all be one environment.
”When this house was built in the late `60s the idea of the great-room concept hadn`t come of age yet, but basically they are living in one room.
”A lot of designers manipulate furniture. I like to manipulate space. I guess some designers approach design from a purely decorative standpoint. It is not just applied stuff or surrounding a room with pretty furniture, but rethinking how you`re going to best take advantage of a room, its best attributes, rather than forcing a room to be something it is not.”
Though Stratman says sometimes his suggestions fall on a client`s deaf ears, this particular one says, ”I quickly came to appreciate what Greg was doing,” and gave him a green light to proceed with the rest of the house.
”See what he did in here,” she says, pointing out the dramatic dining room. ”This room theoretically could have seating for 18. He gave us seating for six,” the table and chairs in appropriate scale to the room, which also has a lake view.
”We do not entertain that much, and when we do have people to dinner it`s only a few couples, intimate friends,” the owner adds.
In the living room, four people can comfortably stretch out on the sofa. Actually there are four, not one, sofas, that Stratman designed to sawtooth sideways across the room.
He devised this scheme, he says, because of the way his clients said they were going to use the room.
”She and her husband were going to curl up with a book, which is the perfect way to use a home,” Stratman says. ”They don`t do big entertainment numbers. And a lot of people do buy a home because they are doing a big wedding or bar mitzvah.”
The living room`s low, massive marble tables, also of Stratman`s own design, even have sliding tops that pull out and come closer to the sofas, for placing a tray, or books in comfortable reach.
Besides manipulating space, Stratman always works with strong forms such as these furnishings he has designed.
”I like geometry,” he says. ”There are certain geometric shapes that are easier to make in furniture than others. I think it has to do with the appearance and respect for form in its decorative capacity.
”There`s a sense of form in what I do. If you call it style, that`s okay, I have a strong sense of geometry.”
That, he realizes, is derived from his love of architecture.
He started out wanting to be an architect and studied for two years at Illinois Institute of Technology. ”I left there because at the time I wanted more than Miesian philosophy. Any deviation from that was not thought well of,” he says.
”I had another two years of architecture at the University of Illinois and then I switched majors to industrial design and finished in that.
”When I got out I decided I would take one more shot at it. I went to the Art Institute and studied fashion design for a year. Then I went to work for Richard Himmel as a draftsman. He put me in a back room at a drawing board for 10 hours a day. Initially I loved it,” Stratman says.
”After two years I quit, and I went to work with a smaller company where I could meet the people. I went back to Himmel and worked for him six years more. I was then vice president. I handled all his out of town and contract work.”
Stratman acknowledges, ”my shapes come from drawing up floor plans. And interpreting them in the room in the three-dimensional sense.
”For example, the all-new kitchen. I wanted the look of all those bars
(on the cabinets) matching up to go with the doors and everything else.”
He also evened up the soffits to make the room more of a square.
(Stratman is, by the way, a master at creating extraordinary kitchens, perhaps because he is a gourmet cook himself. Stratman says, ”I`ve taught people that kitchens can be glamorous. They don`t have to be a forgotten part of the house.”)
”When you`re drawing something up as an architect you have to look down and see that it works well. Realizing that, when I was involved more in architecture, and that those forms are never going to be made apparent, wouldn`t it be neat to make them so?
”To me, this house is not real interesting architecturally. It is actually the scale of the house that is interesting. I felt a lot of the interest had to come from interesting shapes (in the furniture and
accessories.)”
Of the breakfast room table, for example, which he designed with a kind of trestle foot in triangular shapes, he adds ”this could have been four square legs; because this is a square room, and there`s no interesting architecture, I had to do this.”
”These are all over-scaled elements,” Stratman says of the furnishings he designed. ”There`s nothing delicate in here. Everything has a sense of strength. The only delicate piece of furniture is the entrance hall console.” Did he have to take into account the infinite space of the lake outside when planning the interior?
”If there were a plaster wall exactly where the windows are, the furniture would have to be scaled down,” he replies. ”The furniture is large not only because the room is large but because one whole wall is glass and that room just goes out there.
”I was even toying for a time with the idea of losing the definition of space in that room, but I decided I needed the weight of the wall. The painting needs to be there,” referring to the Hans Moller work he chose for the living room.
”The strongest architectural elements in the living room are the two slate fireplaces at either end. Mirroring each side of them makes them look like they`re floating in space. Before you were aware of the three walls and the windows. Now, what you`re immediately aware of is this view.”
