After living in a North Shore suburb for years and raising their family, a middle-aged husband and wife made the empty-nester trek to city living. They purchased a 3,500-square-foot apartment in an elegant Beaux-Arts-style building designed by Benjamin H. Marshall. Among its biggest selling features: north, south and west exposures and front-row views of Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan.
While seeking a new lifestyle in the apartment, the owners looked forward to housing their museum-quality painting and sculpture collection in an atmosphere exuding the feel of an Old-World European flat. The building reminded the wife of one in which her German grandmother had lived.
But the apartment, which had been poorly renovated, with no consideration for the building’s period, required a major overhaul. To do the extensive work required, the couple hired Chicago architect Edward G. Raap and designer John Robert Wiltgen to collaborate.
Because the apartment had been created from part of the original living space that once occupied the entire floor, Raap and Wiltgen decided to rearrange walls for a better traffic pattern. The master bedroom, a partial octagon, was reconfigured into its true eight-sided shape. Raap fashioned cove ceilings for architectural interest and as a place to hide soft accent lighting that would be good for the owners’ artworks, which include a Picasso, Dubuffet, Leger, Magritte, Henry Moore and Jim Dine.
In every room, handsome period details were incorporated, among them an 18th Century gold-leafed and painted fireplace in the living room; distressed walnut paneling in the library; and hand-cut mosaic tiles forming a Byzantine floral pattern in the wife’s bathroom.
Traditional antiques and reproduction furnishings were selected, with seating and pillows covered in a mix of tone-on-tone damasks, florals and woven prints. The hunt for just the right accessories took the designers to several cities. An alabaster chandelier (circa 1920) found in New York was placed in the wife’s bath; a cabinet of different veneers–walnut, rosewood, mahogany–was handmade in Egypt.
Even the paint colors were labored over. The powder room’s oxblood walls consist of 12 layers of glazing; the kitchen’s walls were textured with plaster, then painted and mottled in a mix of yellow, ocher, gray, brown and ivory. Windows were minimally covered to take advantage of views, particularly in the French limestone-paved “orangery,” an enclosed sitting room with views on three sides of sights as much as four or five miles away.
The choices also had to do with comfort. For a guest bedroom, Wiltgen selected extra-long couches that would work as beds for the couple’s two sons, now in their 20s, who come home periodically. With its marble floors, terra-cotta rag-rolled walls, slate countertops and imported mahogany cabinets, the kitchen may look Old World, but it is designed for the two serious owner-cooks.
“The opportunity to be so precise and pay so much attention to details–custom finishes on the walls, custom patterning in the hardwood floors–was incredible,” Wiltgen says. “Every decision became a work of art and brought the apartment back to its former grandeur.”
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RESOURCES
Architectural design–Edward G. Raap. Interior design–John Robert Wiltgen Design. General contractor–Dennis Xenos.
Living room: Sofas–Baker, Knapp & Tubbs with fabric by Brunschwig & Fils, Merchandise Mart; antique Oriental rug–personal collection; floor lamp–Pranich & Associates, Merchandise Mart; coffee table–custom made through John Robert Wiltgen; all other furnishings–personal collection.
Orangery: Pedestal cabinet and Henry Moore sculpture–through John Robert Wiltgen; chair from Rose Tarlow–Melrose House, Merchandise Mart; bronze-frame upholstered chaise longue–The Fine Line; pottery from Cache–Pranich & Associates, Merchandise Mart.
Kitchen: Banquette fabric–Clarence House Imports, Merchandise Mart; table–Mario Villa Chicago Inc.; marble table top–through John Robert Wiltgen; Thermidor stainless range–Plass Appliances and Electronics Co., Highland Park.
Powder room: antique mirror–through John Robert Wiltgen; sink–K & B Galleries Ltd., Merchandise Mart; art–personal collection.
Master bedroom nightstand: Nightstand–Jay Robert’s Antique Warehouse Inc.; Corbin bronze lamp–Holly Hunt Ltd., Merchandise Mart.
